PLAYA DEL CARMEN - WORLD CUP #1

German Lena Schoneborn has shown why she is the current Olympic Champion by winning the Women’s final at World Cup #1 in Playa Del Carmen Mexico.

After a flawless ride Russia's Structkova has a 14 second lead heading into the Combined event

1. Structkova
2. Medany – 14 Seconds
3. Schonborn - 18 Seconds
4. Toth- 19 Seconds
5. Gretchichnikova – 27 Seconds

The fencing event ended in a 3 way tie for the lead with Evdokia Gretchicnikova (RUS), Elena Rublevska (LAT) and Olympic Champion Lena Schoneborn (GER) with 27 wins and 10 losses a piece.  Swimming winner Louise Helyer (GBR) finished the event in 16^th to drop down the leaders board. Polina Struchtkova’s (RUS) second placing in the swimming event and 4^th place in the fencing means she goes into the riding event with a 56 point lead over Egypt’s Aya Medany.

The Women’s final in World Cup #1 begun in perfect sunny conditions in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico today. Great Britain continued their dominance in the pool with Louise Helyer clocking 2:15.01 to win the event over Russia’s Polina Struchtkova. Event favorite Aya Medany (EGY) had a solid swim to finish in 7^th position and Olympic Champion Lena Schonenborn (GER) having some making up to do in the other disiplines after finishing in 12^th. Full results are availiable here and watch the highlights here!

The Women’s final in World Cup #1 begun in perfect sunny conditions in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico today. Great Britain continued their dominance in the pool with Louise Helyer clocking 2:15.01 to win the event over Russia’s Polina Struchtkova. Event favorite Aya Medany (EGY) had a solid swim to finish in 7^th position and Olympic Champion Lena Schonenborn (GER) having some making up to do in the other disiplines after finishing in 12^th. Full results are availiable here.

David Svoboda (CZE) has taken gold in the first major event of 2010 World Cup #1 in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.  This was the first World Cup victory of the World Number 2 Czechs career. After the event Svoboda says that ‘this was my perfect event from start to finish, and am ecstatic with the result.’

The World Cup started with a splash in sunny conditions at the swimming facility. The event was dominated by Great Britain with 19 year old World Cup debutant James Cooke winning the event in a fantastic time of 2.00.70, just touching out team mate Nick Woodbridge. Egyptian Amro El Geziry continued his strong swimming form from 2009 to finish 3^rd. World Champion Adam Marosi (HUN) had a good swim finishing in 6^th position with overall event champion David Svoboda finishing 11th.

2000 and 2004 World Champion Andrejus Zadneprovskis (LTU) won the fencing event with 26 wins and 9 losses. Zadneprovskis had a slow start but came home strong to beat Omar El Geziry (EGY) and Dmytro Kirpulynskyy (UKR) who finished equal second with 24 wins and 11 losses each.  Adam Marosi improved on his fencing from the qualification round to finish in 8th to put him a solid position going into the ride.

Seven athletes including double Olympic Gold Medallist Andrei Moiseev (RUS) scored a perfect 1200 in the riding event on a tricky course. Zadneprovskis needed all his 20 years pentathlon experience to tame a tough horse to also score a perfect 1200 and extend his lead over the field going into the combined event.

The combined event started under a mass of clouds, a stark difference to the picturesque conditions for the mornings swim. Zadneprovskis was awarded for his efforts in the previous events by getting a 25 second handicap lead over Omar El Geziry (EGY) and a 32 second lead David Svoboda (CZE). This wasn’t enough, as poor shooting cost Zadneprovskis the lead as Svoboda caught him by the 3^rd shoot where Svoboda was able hold his nerve better and opened up a winning lead and ran to the gold. Zadneprovskis was overtaken on the final leg of the run by Serguei Karyakin (RUS) who grabbed silver and Zadneprovskis the bronze. Local favourite Ismael Hernandez (MEX) clocked the fastest combined time with Nofal Mustafa not far behind in second.

Zadneprovskis will start the combined event in pole position in the combined event. Start order and handicap times:

1. Zadneprovskis
2. O El Geziry - 0.25
3. Svoboda - 0.32
4. Lee - 0.33
5. Marosi - 0.34
6. D Kirpulyanskyy - 0.42
7. Kartakin - 0.43
8. Tibolya - 0.49
9. Woodbridge - 0.53
10. Gebhardt - 0.53

2000 and 2004 World Champion Andrejus Zadneprovskis (LTU) has won the fencing event in Mexico with 26 wins and 9 losses. Zadneprovskis had a slow start but came home strong to beat Omar El Geziry (EGY) and Dmytro Kirpulynskyy (UKR) who finished equal second with 24 wins and 11 losses.  World Champion Adam Marosi improved on his fencing from the qualification round to finish in 8th to put him a solid position going into the ride. Zadneprovskis leads the event going into the ride.

The Men's final at World Cup #1 has just kicked off in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. The first event was swimming, which was dominated by Great Britain with 19 year old James Cooke winning the event in a great time of 2.00.70, just touching out team mate Nick Woodbridge. Egyptian Amro El Geziry continued his strong swimming form from 2009 to finish in 3^rd. World Champion Adam Marosi (HUN) had a good swim finishing in 6^th position.  For full results click here.

The fencing action is getting underway now.

The 2010 World Cup Series began in perfect condition in Playa Del Carmen on Thursday 4th  March, kicking off with the men’s qualification event.

The swimming event was won by Ireland's Arthur Lanigan-O Keeffe with a supurb time of 2:06, with the young Greek athlete Dimitrios Motsios, putting in a strong performance to finish 3rd.

The fencing caused some upsets, with World Champion Adam Marosi finishing well down the field in 12th. The discipline has joint winners with 20 wins and 5 defeats Pavlo Kirpulynskyy (UKR) and Peter Tibolya (HUN).

The real action was in the combined event, where young local favourite Mexican Ismael Hernandez blitzed the field to win. Dennis Bowsher flying the American flag finished second. The 2008 and 2009 World Champions Ilia Frolov and Adam Marossi just scraped into the final by finishing 16th  and 17th respectively.

For the full results please click here.

The second qualification group will be completed today with the women’s qualification event being cancelled due to lack of number. The finals begin on Saturday. Stay tuned for more exciting Modern Pentathlon action.