EGYPT'S Omnia Fakhri became the first African to collect a medal at the World Senior Modern Pentathlon Championship when she won a bronze in Guatemala. The final in shooting started with the two top places being taken by Fakhri (185 target points) and her younger teammate Aya Medani (184 target points). In fencing, the competition was tight for first place between Kara Grant (CAN), Zsuzsanna Vrs (HUN) and Lena Schoneborn (GER) and it was the last few bouts that were the decider -- the 2004 world champion won the discipline with 20 victories against 11 defeats, only one victory more than the second place athlete. After two events, Vrs was leading with 2,040 points, Tatiana Mouratova (RUS) in second with 1,980 points. Polina Strutchkova (RUS) was the fastest pentathlete in the pool, winning the 200m freestyle in 2:09.05, only half a second ahead of Viktoria Tereschuk (UKR). No change was made at the top after three events, with Vrs, 3,300 points, ahead of Mouratova at 3,248 points and Fakhri in third. Changes took place at the top after riding. Five athletes had perfect rides with a sixth completing the course in a clear round with a time penalty. After four events, Fakhri and Poland's Marta Dziadura were tied at the top and started the run together. Latvia's Elena Rublevska took off 15 seconds behind with Mouratova and Mhairi Spence of Great Britain 21 seconds behind the leader. Round the first two laps, Marta Dziadura kept the lead with Fakhri just behind, but by the end of the last lap, following Dziadura across the finish line was Ukraine's Viktoria Tereschuk who had started out in 20th place, one minute 13 seconds behind Dziadura. Fakhri held onto third place, the first African to win a medal at a senior world championships. Though Egyptian men made it to the final, they failed to achieve a medal. The qualification started with three groups of 90 athletes from 32 nations, representing five continents. As in the women's competition, the list of participants include Olympians, world championship medallists and World Cup final winners, as well as athletes taking part in their first ever Senior World Championships. It was packed at the pool for heat six of the Group B swim where Egypt's Amr El-Geziri set a championship record with a time of 1:55.56. The second fastest came in the Group C swim from Cao Zhongrong of China of 1:58.90. El-Geziri also came first in fencing with 22 victories against seven defeats, for 1,064 points. In the shoot Marcin Horbacz and teammate Tomasz Chmielewski achieved the highest score with 187 target points. Eli Bremer was the fastest runner -- nine minutes 33 seconds -- but it was not enough to get him into the final. The first 10 athletes in each group went through to Sunday's final, together with the two fastest 11th place athletes. The men's final started on Sunday with Poland's Marcin Horbacz and Sergiy Kukshin of Ukraine tied for first in the shoot with 187 target points (1,180 points) in a high-level competition in which nearly two thirds of the competitors scored over 1,100 points. Lithuania's Edvinas Krungolcas (LTU) came first in the fence with 21 victories against 10 defeats, for 972 points which put him into the lead after two events. Egyptians Mena Tadros and El-Geziri together with 2004 Olympic champion Andrei Moiseev of Russia were in second place with one less victory. El-Geziri won the swim with a time of 1:56.31 for 1,408 points, slower than his time in the qualifications. The second fastest time came from Andrei Moiseev with 1:57.40. Edvinas Krungolcas still led with 3,424 points after three events, Viktor Horvath (HUN) was in second with 3,368 points. In the ride, only three athletes received perfect scores: Aleksei Turkin (RUS), Yevgen Borkin (UKR) and Rica de Luca (ITA). Edvinas Krungolcas' lead at the top of the table shrunk after four events, his handicap reduced to seven seconds ahead of Viktor Horvath. The president of Guatemala, Oscar Berger, joined the modern pentathlon family for the last event where, together with all the spectators, he watched Edvinas Krungolcas claim his first World Championship medal with an unthreatened 3000m run straight across the finish line for gold. He was followed by Horvath in second place for silver. The battle for bronze was won by Andrejus Zadneprovskis (LTU) ahead of Libor Capalini (CZE). Illia Frolov (RUS) was the fastest run completing the cross country course in nine minutes and 40 seconds. Team gold went to Lithuania, silver to Hungary and bronze to the Czech Republic.
