Men’s qualifying for the second stop of modern pentathlon’s World Cup circuit will be held Tuesday in Claremont and Pomona with a field including the gold and silver medalists from the 2016 Olympics, Alexander Lesun of Russia and Pavlo Tymoshchenko of Ukraine.
Amro El Geziry is among 12 Americans competing for the 36 spots in Thursday’s final. El Geziry represented Egypt in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics, finishing 32nd, 33rd and 25th. He is married to American pentathlete Isabella Isaksen.
El Geziry initially planned to retire following the 2016 Olympics, but decided to continue competing.
El Geziry and Isaksen were both accepted into the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program in 2017. The program provides outstanding soldier-athletes the support and training to compete and succeed in national and international competitions leading to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, while maintaining a professional military career and promoting the U.S. Army to the world.
El Geziry and Isaksen, who was 24th in the 2016 Olympic women’s modern pentathlon, both have the rank of specialist in the Army.
The fencing and laser-run portions of the pentathlon will be held at Fairplex and the swimming at The Claremont Club.
Isaksen was among two Americans Monday to qualify for Wednesday’s women’s final, matching the 14th-highest point total among the 67 athletes in two groups, 1,006.
The other American woman to qualify, Samantha Achterberg, had the 33rd-highest total, 985. Achterberg is a private in the Army and a member of the World Class Athlete Program
Competitors receive points based on their performances in each element of the modern pentathlon.
Uliana Batashova of Russia had the top score, 1,035 points, 19 ahead of fellow Russian Gulnaz Gubaydullina and Tamara Vega of Mexico.
Batashova had the best results in fencing among Group A competitors, winning 23 of 32 bouts at Fairplex’s Expo Hall 8 for 257 points. She had the 12th-fastest time in the 200-meter swim at The Claremont Club, two minutes, 20.24 seconds for 270 points, giving her a two-point lead over Gubaydullina entering the final event.
Batashova’s two-point lead meant she would start two seconds ahead of Gubaydullina in the laser-run, where the athletes seek to hit a target five times from 10 meters with a laser pistol before running each of the four 800-meter laps.
The athlete with the most points through the first three events starts the laser-run first, with the rest of the field starting one second later for each point he or she is behind. The system assures the athlete crossing the finish line first wins the overall competition.
Batashova had the 13th-fastest time in the laser-run on the infield of Fairplex’s Grandstand, 13:12, but was 17 seconds faster than Gubaydullina, whose time of 13:29 was 20th-fastest.
The fifth element of modern pentathlon, riding, is not included in qualifying.