Modern Pentathlon Men's Final At Claremont Club

CLAREMONT, CA — The men's final of modern pentathlon's UIPM World Cup I will be held Friday at Fairplex and The Claremont Club with Olympic gold medalists Aleksander Lesun of Russia and David Svoboda of the Czech Republic among the competitors.

The field of 36 athletes from 17 nations includes three Americans -- Logan Storie and brothers Nathan and Lucas Schrimsher.

Storie equaled the fourth-highest score during Wednesday's semifinal, 1,112 points, and had the fastest time in the 200-meter swim at 1:56.10, the only sub-2-minute time.

Storie, who swam at the University of Florida, holds the pentathlon swimming world record, 1:53.08, set in the 2015 World Championships in Berlin.

Nathan Schrimsher finished 11th in the 2016 Olympics, and equaled the 18th-highest semifinal score, 1,101 points. His younger brother Lucas matched the lowest-qualifying score, 1,085.

Storie and Nathan Schrimsher are both sergeants in the U.S. Army and members of its World Class Athlete Program.

Jinhaw Jung of South Korea had the highest semifinal score, 1,120.

The final will include all five elements of the modern pentathlon -- fencing, swimming, riding, shooting and running. The semifinal did not include riding.
Fairplex officials contacted area horse owners and clubs to obtain the required 22 horses needed.

All but one of the 28 horses obtained passed the jumping test required to be eligible to participate in the competition, which was "pretty extraordinary," according to officials with USA Pentathlon, the sport's national governing body, Renee Hernandez, Fairplex's communications & public relations manager, told City News Service. Horses are assigned to the athletes based on a random draw.
The competition will begin at 11:30 a.m. with swimming at The Claremont Club.

The fencing will start at 12:30 p.m. at Fairplex's Expo Hall 8.

The riding will begin at 4:30 p.m. at Fairplex's Infield, followed there at 6:30 p.m. by the laser-run, where the athletes seek to hit a target five times from 10 meters with a laser pistol before running each of four 800-meter laps.

Tickets are $15 for adults ages 13 and older and $7.50 for children ages 6-12. Children 5 and under are free.

A multi-day pass which is good through the end of the competition Sunday are $25 for for adults ages 13 and older and $15 for children ages 6-12.

Sarolta Kovacs of Hungary was the top scorer in Thursday's women's semifinals with 1,016 points, one more than 2008 Olympic gold medalist Lena Schoneborn of Germany.

Kovacs won 19 fencing bouts, a total topped by just two athletes. Her 2:13.34 time in the 200-meter swim was the third fastest. Her 542 points through the first two events put her second overall behind Russia's Anna Buriak.

Kovacs completed the laser-run in 13:46.23, 52.54 seconds faster than Buriak.
Samantha Achterberg was the lone American to qualify for Saturday's final.
The opening ceremony followed the women's semifinal. Flags were carried by Special Olympics and modern pentathlon athletes. The marching band from Pomona's Garey High School performed. The opening ceremony also included the induction of World War II U.S. Army Gen. George S. Patton into the UIPM Hall of Fame. Patton finished fifth in the modern pentathlon in the 1912 Summer Olympics.

The Hall of Fame was established in November by UIPM President Klaus Schormann.

Patton is the only American in the inaugural 10-member class, which also includes Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games who invented modern pentathlon in 1909 as a test of the skills required by 19th century cavalry soldiers.

City News Service contributed to this report.

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