International modern pentathlon competition winds down in Southern California

The five-day UIPM World Cup I concludes Sunday with the mixed team relay at Fairplex and The Claremont Club, one day after 2008 Olympic gold medalist Lena Schoeneborn of Germany won the women’s final of the first international modern pentathlon competition in Los Angeles County since the 1984 Olympics.

The competition began at 10 a.m. at The Claremont Club with each member of the two-person team swimming 100 meters. The fencing begins at 12:15 p.m. in Fairplex’s Expo Hall 8 with each team member facing the opponent from his gender from each of the other teams.

Each team member will also participate in the riding portion, which begins at 3:30 p.m. in Fairplex’s Infield, the site of the laser-run, which starts at 5 p.m.

Schoeneborn trailed Japan’s Natsumi Tomonaga by 21 points entering Saturday’s final event, the laser-run, where the athletes seek to hit a target five times from 10 meters with a laser pistol before running each of four 800- meter laps.

The leader starts the laser-run first, with the remaining athletes starting one second behind for each point they are behind. The first athlete to cross the finish line is the overall winner.

Schoeneborn needed only five shots in each of her first two shooting series to hit the required five targets, passed Tomonaga on the third lap and led for the remainder of the race, winning her ninth individual World Cup event.

“It was difficult, but I knew I could still make up the time on the laser-run and I didn’t have to go all out, and that was nice,” Schoeneborn said. It’s always nice to be able to chase and catch someone instead of leading from the front. Mentally it’s easier.”

Schoeneborn had the seventh-fastest time on the laser-run, 12 minutes, 49 seconds, receiving 531 points, giving her 1,346 for the competition. Kate French of Great Britain was second with 1,335, two points ahead of Ekaterina Khuraskina of Russia, the third-place finisher.

French entered the laser-run in eighth place, 55 points off the lead.

“I just tried to focus on picking people off and I didn’t realize until the last lap that it was going to be such an exciting race for silver and bronze,” said French, who finished sixth in the 2016 Olympics.

“I am really pleased with my run. I was just praying for the finish line to come. It’s my highest place at a World Cup so I’m very pleased.”

French had the second-fastest time in the laser-run, 12:26, 11 seconds slower than the fastest time, posted by Ilke Ozyuksel, who finished sixth overall with 1,307 points.

Tomonaga finished fourth with 1,326 points. She had the 20th-fastest laser-run time, 13:30, good for 490 points.

The lone American in the field of 36 athletes from 16 nations, Samantha Achterberg, finished 16th with 1,259 points.

Schoeneborn began the pentathlon by posting the 22nd-fastest time in the 200-meter swim at The Claremont Club, 2:23.04.

Schoeneborn had the second-best result in fencing at Fairplex’s Expo Hall 8, winning 27 of 35 bouts for 262 points, putting her in third overall with 526 points, 14 behind Tomonaga and five behind Russia’s Alise Fakhrutdinova, who would finish seventh.

Schoeneborn fell seven more points behind Tomonaga following the riding portion on Fairplex’s Infield. Schoeneborn received 289 of a possible 300 points, while Tomonaga received 296.

–City News Service