TOKYO (Reuters) -Joseph Choong won the Olympic men’s modern pentathlon on Saturday to give Britain a sweep of gold medals following Kate French’s win in the women’s event.
Choong led from start to finish during the decisive laser run but needed to dig deep during the final metres to see off a challenge from Egypt’s Ahmed Elgendy who took silver.
South Korea’s Jun Woong-tae snatched the bronze on a stifling day at a sweltering Tokyo Stadium.
Modelled after the skills of the ideal soldier, modern pentathlon is the only sport created especially for the modern Olympics when it was introduced by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in Stockholm in 1912 and has remained relatively unchanged ever since.
In 1964, when the Games were last staged in Tokyo, modern pentathlon was held over five days but on Saturday the five events (200 metre swim, fencing, equestrian show jumping, shooting and running) were crammed into Tokyo Stadium for one action packed afternoon.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Tokyo, Editing by Ed Osmond and Toby Davis)
