Andrey Moiseev became the first man for 52 years to win back-to-back gold medals in the men’s modern pentathlon yesterday.
The Russian finished ahead of the Lithuanian duo of Edvinas Krungolcas and Andrejus Zadneprovskis, a double world champion and a silver medalist in Athens four years ago, having led into the concluding 3,000m run.
Moiseev’s final total in the demanding one-day event saw him finish with 5,632 points. Krungolcas finished on 5,548 and Zadneprovskis 5,524.
PHOTO: AP
China’s Qian Zhenhua, second heading into the concluding 3,000m, faded in front of his home crowd and finished out of the medals in fourth after collapsing over the line. Moiseev was 52 points ahead of Qian after the show-jumping, the fourth event of a competition also featuring target shooting, fencing and swimming.
Under the system used to ensure the first home in the 3,000m is also the overall winner, Moiseev had a 13 second head start over Qian.
The 3,000m was, unusually, not held on a cross-country course but on the athletics track at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, where the runners were made to take several turns in what were effectively three laps of 1,000m each.
PHOTO: AP
Michal Michalik’s victory in the penultimate show-jumping phase saw him go up to fifth place. But fellow Czech David Svoboda, who had been third, dropped down the field to 31st.
The show-jumping saw five of the 36-man field fail to finish the 12 obstacle course, situated inside the confines of the stadium’s athletics track.
No-one managed a clear round, with Michalik’s 28 penalties in a time of 69.37 seconds the best effort.
There were numerous refusals, several falls and repeated instances of horses ploughing through the fences in a competition which, unlike other equestrian events, sees competitors on mounts they have never previously ridden.
The worst case saw John Zakrzewski flipped over, dragged along with his foot still in the stirrups and stamped on by his mount, leaving the Frenchman with a bloodied face.
Svoboda had earlier scored 191 out of a maximum 200 in the 10m pistol shooting, surpassing the previous Olympic best of 186 shared by the Belarus duo Pavel Dougal (Sydney 2000) and Dmitry Meliakh (Athens 2004).
But no man who has won the shooting has gone on to take the modern pentathlon gold medal. In the epee fencing, both Moiseev and Qian won 26 of their 35 bouts.
Egypt’s Amro el Geziry set a new Olympic modern pentathlon 200m swimming record of 1 minute, 55.86 seconds, breaking Moiseev’s mark in Athens four years ago of 1 minute, 58:88 seconds.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS