The Chinese pair of Jianli Guo and Zhngrong Cao were the pick of the athletes in group B as they cruised through qualification.

World #13 Dmytro Kirpulyanskyy (UKR) was the biggest casualty of group A, as he slipped out of the top 12 in the last round of the combined event.

The Chinese are dominating group B, with Jianli Guo (CHN) on top after 2 events and Zhongrong Cao (CHN) in 3rd. They are split by the Egyptian Amro El Geziry, who has had a consistent day finishing 1st in the swim and 4th in the fence.

This means that Guo will have an 11 seconds lead over ElGeziry and Cao being another 10 seconds back. Followed by them will be 3 World Champions. 2008 World Champion Ilia Frolov (RUS) will start 4th , 2009 World Champion Adam Marosi (HUN) will  start in 6th, and Serguei Karyakin (RUS) will start in 8th, 47 seconds off the pace.

Full results can be found here: http://www.pentathlon.org/results/competition-results/results/pentathlon/926-uipm-world-cup-1/senior/men/qualificiation_b.

Woojin Hwang (KOR) produced the fastest swim time from group A in a time of 2:01.17 which was a touch faster than Hayato Noguchi (JPN).

Jamie Cooke (GBR) has produced a phenomenal swim to smash his own swimming world record in group C. Cooke posted a time of  1:54.25 to beat his mark of 1:54.60 posted at the 2011 World Cup Final. In this swim Cooke got an astonishing 1432 points which should ensure he gets a smooth passage into the Final, however he said his 'legs are full of lactic acid' after the amazing swim.

Cooke put his remarkable time down to hard training in the off season and the new speedo swimsuit he received from UIPM last night.

He beat his team mate Nick Woodbridge (GBR) by over 2 seconds and Jinhwa Jung (KOR) was a further 6 seconds behind.

Mihail Prokopenko (BLR) has marked his return to competitive Pentathlon after a year out with a near flawless fencing performance in Group A. Prokopenko lost just 5 bouts to have 3 more wins than World #1 Aleksander Lesun (RUS). Omar El Geziry (EGY) was 1 victory behind and Justinas Kinderis (LTU) had a welcome return to form to be in 4th position.

Former World #1 David Svoboda (CZE) had a solid fence, finishing in 12th position 10 wins behind Prokopenko. Last year’s World #1 champion Pavlo Tymoschenko (UKR) struggled finishing back in 17th position.

Full results: http://www.pentathlon.org/component/uipm/results/pentathlon/926-uipm-world-cup-1/senior/men/qualification_a.

Olympic Swimming record holder Amro El Geziry (EGY) has set the pace in the swimming in group A.

With the women showing today that all their preseason training has paid off, now it’s the men’s turn to get their season started.

The opening day of the opening World Cup of the year in Charlotte, USA produced some dramatic upsets.

Unlike the 2 qualification groups beforehand, there were no massive upsets in group C.