Earlier in the day, Serapinaite (LTU), emerging from the shadow of two-time Olympic medallist Laura Asadauskaite (LTU), enjoyed a classy victory in the Women’s Final and she wasn’t the only first-time medallist on the podium.
Silver went to Veronika Novotna of Czech Republic after an exceptional Laser Run which saw her hold off the challenge of specialist Ilke Ozyuksel of Turkey.
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Women’s Final
Riding
With 17 of the 18 finalists scoring over 270, there was a high standard of Riding and this was underlined by two of the medal favourites, Serapinaite (LTU) and Ozyuksel (TUR) achieving perfect scores of 300.
There were another five unblemished rounds by team-mates Olivia Green, Charlie Follett and Kerenza Bryson (GBR), Alise Fakhrutdinova of Uzbekistan and Francesca Tognetti of Italy, and only one casualty – Mayan Oliver of Mexico who dropped 67 penalty points.
Fencing
With a healthy cushion from the Ranking Round where she scored two more victories than anyone else (24V/11D), Serapinaite (LTU) could afford to drop the four-point opportunity on offer in the final bout of the Bonus Round. And so it transpired as Sarolta Simon of Hungary claimed the ultimate victory.
Both Simon (HUN) and Bryson (GBR) had put themselves in a strong position with 22V/13D in the Ranking Round, with a host of athletes including Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist Elodie Clouvel of France lurking just behind.
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Swimming
A noticeable gulf in class meant that Swimming was more influential than ever in determining the Laser Run start positions.
Clouvel (FRA) swam 2:09.81 for a score of 291 and a jump up to 2nd overall, while Serapinaite (LTU) put distance between herself and the chasing pack with 2:12.16 (286pts), almost 3sec quicker than 3rd-fastest Tamara Vega (MEX).
Laser Run
All eyes were on Serapinaite (LTU), who didn’t win selection for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but may be her nation’s great hope for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The 27-year-old started with a 23sec lead over Clouvel (FRA), whose medal bid soon crashed with a dreadful opening shoot.
The big movers were former Laser Run world record-holder Ozyuksel (TUR) and, less predictably, 21-year-old Novotna (CZE), who sprang from 8th to 2nd after a fast opening lap and a brilliant shoot.
Sunwoo Kim (KOR) made a move up to 4th and was then displaced by Rebecca Langrehr of Germany, then finally Blanka Guzi (HUN), but none of them could disrupt the medal top trio.
Serapinaite (LTU) stayed calm throughout to win by a final margin of 8sec from the impressive Novotna (CZE), with Ozyuksel (TUR) a little beneath her usual pace but still doing enough to claim her fifth Pentathlon World Cup medal.
The fastest time of the day was an excellent 11:28.10 by Jessica Varley (GBR), some 12sec faster than Novotna (CZE, 11:40.30)
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