CAIRO - WORLD CUP #2

The men's qualifications from World Cup #2 day included an impressive field of more than 75 pentathletes. This made qualification for the final very tough as the athletes were split into 3 different groups and only the top 12 qualifying from each. Lets see who managed to make the final.

Group A

It was an early start for the Men’s qualifiers with the fencing competition starting at 7:00am. Belarus star Yahor Lapo (BLR) and his teammate Stanislau Zhurauliou (BLR) and Stefan Kollner (GER) all shared first place in the fencing with 17 victories and 1000 points. After fencing all the attention turned to the swimming pool where Remigiusez Golis (POL) recorded the fastest time of 2:00.53, almost 3 seconds ahead of Shinya Fujii (JPN) with 2:03.18. After the 2 events Yahor Lapo (BLR) benefited from his fencing win and solid swim to lead going into the Combined Event, 6 seconds ahead of countryman Stanislau Zhurauliou (BLR). The Combined Event’s best performer was Christopher Link (GER) who started from 19^th and finished the event in 11^th position with a great time of 11:38.91, another impressive performance came from came from Valeriy Ovcharov (RUS) who started in 15^th and finished 4^th with time 11:46.8. Olympic Silver Medalist Edvinas Krungolcas (LTU) was all class and won the group. Mostafa Nofal (EGY) was the only Egyptian making the top 12. Click here for final results.

Group B

Group B was the most important to the locals as the 2 highly ranked Egyptian and medal hopefuls Amro and Omar El Geziry were competing. This group started with swimming so we could get through the enormous amount of athletes. The crowd was happy as the race was won by swimming specialist and the winner of the swimming event at the Olympic Games Amro El Geziry (EGY) who swam 2:02.53. The fencing event was jointly won by Pavel Sekretev (RUS) and Robert Kasza (HUN) who also finished 3^rd in the swimming. These 2 led off the field in the Combined Event due to their strong swim and fence. The crowd built up to support the local Egyptian's in their attempt to get them into the top 12 and make the final. Robert Kasza capped off a fine day to win the Combined event and the group. The biggest movement came from Mikhail Mitsyk (BLR) who jumped from 14^th to 6^th position with the best time of the group of 12:10.66. Click here for final results.

Group C

The last group in the day also began with swimming where Sung Hyun Lee (KOR) was the fastest in the pool with a solid time of 2:03.59 followed by swimming gun Nick Woodbridge (GBR). Fencing was next with Federico Giancamilli (ITA) continuing his strong fencing form from last year winning with 16 victories, he was closely followed by Hayato Noguchi (JPN) who did enough to start the Combined Event in first place, 1 second ahead of Giancamilli. Tomas Makarovas (LTU) won group C from 4^th position with 4216 points, Giancamilli held on for 4^th place, which was where he started. However the fastest time was clocked by David Atkinson (GBR) who had the fastest time of the day of 11:21.82. Group C included many surprises World #8 Thomas Daniel (AUT) and consistent performer Nick Woodbridge (GBR) not qualifying for Sundays final. Click here for final results.

It was a great day for the Egyptians with an astonishing 7 athletes qualifying for the final. On Sunday all eyes will be on the Lithuanians Edvinas Krungolcas and Justinas Kinderis who are ranked 5^th and 6^th in the world respectively.