Gold in the pentathlon competition – both the European Games and the European Championships – was won by Giorgio Malan

Italian Giorgio Malan crushed the competition, from the second lap of the laser run imposing his own conditions on his rivals and giving no chance. Silver for Joseph Choong of Great Britain, bronze for Hungarian Csaba Bohm.

Malan skipped like an Italian Pendolino, behind his back the battle between the two Brits heated up, from which Choong, the Olympic champion from Tokyo, emerged victorious. Lukasz Gutkowski was eighth and thus sealed his ticket to the Olympic Games in Paris. Recall that the Pole had a very good starting position before Saturday’s struggles, as he did very well on the board, in the one-on-one duels on Wednesday afternoon.

Horseback riding performed by men finally filled the stands with spectators to the brim. The only Pole in the stakes, riding Indisimo, was one of two riders who completed the parkour flawlessly and within the time limit. He received well-deserved rapturous applause for his ride. When it seemed that nothing could surprise the spectators the ride was started by Alexandre Dallenbach. The Swiss rode too fast and scored one drop on the course. When he jumped the last obstacle on Cocociano Mel, unexpectedly the horse threw off the rider and rushed towards the warm-up area. By the judges’ verdict, Dallenbach received a ten-second penalty for leaving the fence on his own feet. The horseback riding began with the drawing of a horse, and the riders had only 20 minutes to get to know and trust the horse. Horses for the European Games were drawn from almost all over Poland, from Drzonkow, Warsaw, Kolobrzeg and Podlasie.

In the fencing bonus – a 30-second fight on the board until the first hit – in the loser-out system, the winner was Valentin Prades, who in the last duel gave no chance to Patryk Doug. Gutkowski – ranked sixth in the overall standings – instantly dealt with Csaba Bohm (the Hungarian had previously won four fights), in the next skirmish the Legia Warsaw fighter lost to Ukrainian Oleksandr Towkaj.

Before the swim, Poland’s top pentathlete was third overall. The result of 2:05.48 absolutely did not affect his position, but the swim itself strongly flattened and leveled the stakes before the laser run. Gutkowski was losing just six seconds to the leader – the younger of the Dogue brothers, Marvin – before the start of the shootout run.

Promotion to the IO in Paris, in addition to the mentioned top three and the Pole, was won by – Prades (France), Marvin Douge (Germany), Towkai (Ukraine) and Dallenbach (Switzerland).

The team event was won by the British (Choong, Myles Pillage, Charles Brown), ahead of France (Valentin Belaud, Prades, Christopher Patte) and Italy (Roberto Micheli, Malan, Mateo Cicinelli). Poland finished sixth (Gutkowski, Daniel Ławrynowicz, Sebastian Stasiak).