Joe Choong: Reigning Olympic champion through to modern pentathlon finals as Team GB team-mate Charlie Brown misses out
Updated 09/08/2024 at 20:09 GMT+1
Team Great Britain’s Joe Choong is through to tomorrow’s modern pentathlon finals after finishing eighth in the semi-final B. The reigning Olympic champion left himself with a lot to do after a poor fencing ranking round, but an impressive fencing bonus and swimming rounds meant he was within reach in the laser run. Team-mate Charles Brown finished 10th, just outside the qualifying positions.
'Heartbreaking way to end!' - Horse refuses to jump THREE times as rider eliminated
Video credit: TNT Sports
Reigning Olympic champion Joe Choong booked his place in tomorrow’s modern pentathlon final with a controlled performance in semi-final B.
The 29-year-old had a disappointing start to his title defence in yesterday’s fencing ranking round, finishing 29th out of 36 with 14 defeats and 21 losses.
His performance meant he would start semi-final B with 195 points - a sizeable disadvantage compared to top ranked athlete, Ukraine’s Oleksandr Tovkai.
In the first show jumping round, Choong put in a solid performance, clipping two jumps to finish with a score of 286. His team-mate, Charles Brown, meanwhile was one of five athletes to record a perfect round.
There was drama though in the final run of the day - Tovkai’s horse Varna Brecourt refusing to jump three times, eliminating the reigning European champion from the round and essentially relegating him to last place, giving him a mountain to climb to qualify in the laser run.
Choong came to the fore in the fencing bonus round, overcoming yesterday’s lacklustre performance to win four duels in a row - scoring him eight points - while his win in the swimming left him just three seconds behind ninth place in the laser run.
In the end, his position in the finals was never really in doubt, the 2022 and 2023 world champion edging to eighth by the third running leg and staying in control to comfortably finish in the top eight.
It wasn’t to be for Charles Brown though - the 21-year-old finishing in 10th and missing out on the finals in his first Olympic Games finals despite recording the second-fastest time of the round.
In the other semi-final, Egypt’s Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Ahmed Elgendy finished first despite starting proceedings with a shaky show jumping performance, while home favourites Jean-Baptiste Mourcia and Valentin Prades made the nine-man cut-off and are through to tomorrow’s final.
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