After claiming the gold medal in the World Juniors Championship in Cairo, Egypt's modern pentathlete Aya Medani shoots for Beijing, Inas Mazhar reports In front of a cheering crowd, Egypt's golden girl Aya Medani added more achievements to her record in the sport. Her gold medal in the World Juniors Championship was her first in the tournament. In the final event, the Egyptian prodigy took the lead after the 4th event (riding) scoring a perfect clear round and maintained that lead until the finish line. The final competition, shooting, had begun early in the day of the final at the indoor complex of the Cairo International Stadium. The event was won by Belarussian Yulia Smirnova with an impressive score of 189 target points followed by the Egyptian Yasmen Khaled with 187. Barbora Kodedova from the Czech Republic was third with 185. Medani shot 180 points that put her in 8th position. After the shooting the pentathletes moved to the fencing hall, located inside the same venue. The best fencers were the Hungarians Kristina Cseh and the 2007 Junior World Champion Adrienn Toth who both scored 27 victories corresponding to 1,048 pentathlon points. Third, with an excellent 976 points, was Medani who climbed to third position with 2,072 behind Cseh (2,180 points) and Toth (2,084). In the pool, Hungarian Sarolta Kovacs dominated, posting the fastest time of 2:11:52. Second was Ekaterina Lapshova of Russia with 2:14:29 while Joanna Gomolinska from Poland finished third in 2:15:05. Medani was fourth, nine hundreds of a second slower than Gomolinska, enough to step into second place after three events. The classification following the riding event did not change significantly, thanks to both the performances of the athletes and the high quality horses provided by the Local Organising Committee. At the end, 14 athletes had a clear round and scored 1,200 points, and six more finished with 1,176 points, meaning they had only one knock down on the course. The winner was Marina Shcherbakova of Russia with the time of 1:17:64 and 1,200 points, followed by Medani who rode Kantero (1:16:00), in third place. Another Russian Anastasia Abolonina (1'15"00), came third. After four events, Medani took the lead with a remarkable score of 4,572, followed by the two Hungarians; Cseh with 4568 and Kovacs with 4520. The gap between them and the rest of the field was wide. In fourth place was Janine Kohlmann (4420) from Germany, fifth was Anastasia Abolonina (4384) and Adrienn Toth sixth with 4368. The 3,000 metre run did not change the start order for the top places. It was gold for Medani, silver for Cseh and Kovacs the bronze. The team competition was won by the amazing Hungarian team, followed by RussiaEgypt third. Medani's achievement was an impressive comeback for Egyptian juniors in the modern pentathlon after 20 years. "When Egypt first hosted the event in 1988, we were not on the international map and were unseeded. There were no females in the competition as well. That began the following year," says technical observer of the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) Hiltrud Reder. "This year, Egypt hosted the 43rd edition of the modern pentathlon world Juniors Championship and was the top seed as well. You have made great achievements," Reder added. Medani's victory added to her impressive achievements during the past 12 months, with victories in the 2007 World Cup Final, the last edition of the five World Cup series, in Kladno (CZE), and the silver medal at the Budapest 2008 World Championships, making her first in the pentathlon world ranking. Klaus Schormann, the UIPM president, said he was happy for Medani and for the achievements of the Egyptians. "It shows the great work done by the Egyptians in the sport and proof that the Egyptian modern pentathlon federation is going in the right direction." "Aya is a superstar and I believe if she maintains her high level and is relaxed before the Olympic Games, we might see her on the podium receiving an Olympic medal. She is in very good shape and displayed wonderful results this past year," Schormann said. "The Egyptians continue to surprise us with their rapid development in the sport and impressive organisations of world cup rounds and world championships," the UIPM president said. Egypt was not as fortunate in the men's event, and had to settle for a fourth place finish by Yasser Hefni, who surprisingly came from behind from 10th place in the running. With a score of 5,656 pentathlon points, Russian Sergey Karyakin became the new junior World Champion after a 3000 metre head to head struggle with Pierpaolo Petroni of Italy. Petroni started the run with the lead until the final 500 metres when Karyakin found the decisive energy to improve his pace and left a never surrendering Petroni behind him till the finish line. Petroni finished second with a score of 5620, while the bronze went to the surprising Dimitrios Motsios from Greece (5596 points). The long day in men's final and the challenge for the medals was very intense from the morning when the 36 pentathletes took their position for the shooting. After the quite and stressful atmosphere of the shooting range the competition followed with the piercing, lively and passionate atmosphere of fencing. The tournament was very close with the best athletes squeezed around a bunch of points. There were three winners tied at 23 victories/12 defeats (952 pentathlon points): Daniel Szendrei (HUN), Maxim Aldochkine (RUS) and Aliasander Liasun (BLR). Hefni was fourth with 22 victories The best swimmer was Dimitrios Motsios (GRE) who swam the 200 metres in the remarkable time of 1:59:71. Behind him came the Russian Maxim Shersytuk (2:01:52), while the third best time was achieved by the French Bruno Merle (2:03:95). After three events the leader was still Petroni who had a 16 point lead on the Greek Motsios, and 52 points more than the temporary third classified Aliasander LIasun of Belarus. After the great performances of the girls in the previous day in the men's final, the boys came to the riding arena with a positive mood, approaching in the best way the critical situation that riding an unknown horse always represents even for the most experienced pentathletes. Twelve clear rounds and six courses completed with only one knock down. The best among the obstacles was the Mexican Miguel Luna while the second best performance in terms of time and clear jumps was Mustafa Nofal from Egypt; third in the riding event was the Hungarian Daniel Szendrei. After the riding Petroni still held the top place with 4500 points but Karyakin edged closer and was only 20 points back. The most credible challenge seemed to be Motsios (4th place at 4452) and the Korean Doong-Soo Park (5th) even after Hefni (10th place at 4400 points) looked like he could take advantage of both his running skills and the warm support of the local audience. At the end, the bronze went to Greece and Hefni finished fourth by seven seconds. Park ended up in 5th place, only one second behind Hefni. Christopher Patte from France had the best time with an astonishing 8:59:26, keeping the second fastest runner, Karyakin almost 17 seconds behind him. Third was another Russian, Roman Kholodkov with 9:17:35. Russia was on top of the podium in the team competition, winning its second gold medal of the day after defeating Belarus and Poland (silver and bronze respectively). " Of course I'm happy with the achievements of my athletes," said Ahmed Nasser, the Arab and Egyptian modern pentathlon federations. "Our plan and strategy in the federation has worked so well since we, as a board, took over three years ago. During these years, we accomplished the greatest achievements in the history of the sport in Egypt and made our country the leading country in the sport. "We are confident in Aya and hope she can get glory for her country and herself by winning a medal in the Olympics. She is the top ranked athlete in the world right now .
