Gold for Czechia in Modern Pentathlon
The gold medal of the European Games in mixed relay in Modern Penthatlon was won by the Czechia team: Karolina Krenkova – Martin Vlach mix. Silver for Hungary and bronze went to Great Britain. Hosts Natalia Dominiak – Daniel Ławrynowicz finished in seventh place.
The best team during fencing competition that opened the they were Hungary’s Kamila Reti and Mihaly Koleszar who won eight times each and temporarily opened the ranking with 236 points.
Just in the afternoon, the competitors took to the parkrun for the first time. Eight obstacles (of different heights – the highest being 110 cm) were placed on the track, which took 86 seconds to overcome. The Greeks and Bulgarians did not appear on the parkrun. Four mixes rode flawlessly, but only three were in the lead. Great Britain (Jessica Varley, Samuel Curry) on horses Indisimo and Niko, Switzerland (Lea Egloff, Vital Mueller) on horses Robinia and Best Eden and the Czech Republic (Krenkova, Vlach) on horses Bara and Candy Kids. The Georgians – despite riding without dismounts – received ten penalty points for failing to give a nod to the judges and audience. The Spaniards, on the other hand, were penalised (10 seconds) for leaving the so-called garden – the place where the riders start and finish the competition – by Andrea Medina Gonzales. The biggest disappointment was experienced by the Germans, who went over the time limit and Christian Zillekens’ horse Candy Kids stopped before the obstacle.
Just 10 minutes after the end of the equestrian event, the mixes began to compete in the bonus fencing round, located in the middle of the AWF Krakow athletics stadium. This part of the competition was won by the Swedish pair Marlena Jawaid – Daniel Steinbock, beating the Hungarians. The duel ending the competition was particularly memorable for the audience. Steinbock defeated Koleszar with a lightning fast attack, after only one second!
In the penultimate part of the competition, swimming was scheduled. Each pair had to swim 100 metres in freestyle. And here there was a pleasant surprise for the hosts. Not only did Dominiak and Ławrynowicz beat everyone in their heat, the Germans, Greeks and Bulgarians, but their time of 1: 57.68 was only twelve hundredths of a second worse than the best result in the swim of the Swedish mix (1:57.56).
In the laser run competitors had three runs of 600 m (1.8 km) each and two shoots to complete. The Poles set off on the course 46 seconds after the Czechs. After the women’s changeover, Turkey was unexpectedly in the lead, as an excellent changeover was given by Ilke Ozyuksel. Before the second men’s shoot, Martin Vlach kicked into third gear. The Czech rushed like crazy and with a big lead (five seconds) he overtook Koleszar and by 12 seconds the Briton Curry. Ławrynowicz did as much as he could. The Poles – surprisingly – won the laser run with a time of 12.05 (575 points, 1 missed shot).
Czechs were the best by the end of the day. Hungarians finished second while Great Britain took the third place.