South Korean modern pentathlon standout Jeon Woong-tae (Gwangju Metropolitan Government), who will look to repeat his medal success at Tokyo 2020, has started the Paris 2024 Games on a high note.
Jeon won 22 and lost 13 of his 35 bouts to earn 235 points, good for fourth place out of 36 athletes in the men’s modern pentathlon fencing ranking round at the North Paris Arena in Paris, France, on Monday.
Modern pentathlon is a sport in which an athlete competes in a series of fencing, swimming, equestrian, cross-country running, and shooting events, and their times are scored to determine the winner. It’s the only sport at the Olympics where the President of the International Olympic Committee must attend the medal ceremony to congratulate the athletes. Injuries are recognized with a laurel wreath. The reason for this special treatment is that modern pentathlon was invented by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games and the second president of the International Olympic Committee.
Jeon won a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games three years ago. It was the first Olympic medal in South Korea’s modern pentathlon history. Jeon”s weakness in all five modern pentathlon events is fencing. Three years ago at Tokyo 2020, he finished ninth with 21 wins. This time, he finished fourth, which was a better result than in Tokyo.
In modern pentathlon, 36 athletes compete in a one-minute, one-point epee. A ’25 win’ is worth 250 points in modern pentathlon terms, with five points added for each win and five points subtracted for each loss. If neither athlete scores a successful attack within one minute, both athletes are recorded as defeated.
While fencing also takes place in the semifinals and finals, the ranking rounds have a much more significant impact on results, with only one point awarded for a win, and a bonus round where the bottom two in the ranking rounds compete in a “survival” style with the winner advancing. Jeon Woong-tae, who made a serious push for the top spot midway through the day with a four-game winning streak from games 14 to 17, went on a five-game winning streak from game 29 to 33 to move up the rankings.
His teammate in the men’s 토토사이트 순위 event, Seo Chang-wan (Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps), who is playing in his first Olympic Games, finished 10th with 20 wins and 15 losses.
Tokyo Olympic silver medalists Ahmed Elgendy (EGY) and Oleksandr Tovkay (UKRA) led the way with 24 wins (245 points), followed by Pavels Svecovs (LAT) with 23 wins (240 points). Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Joseph Chung (Great Britain) could only muster 14 wins to remain in 29th place (195 points).
Jeon Woong-tae and Seo Chang-wan will next compete in the semifinals at the Palace of Versailles on September 9. The semifinals will see players compete in two groups of 18, with the top nine from each group advancing to the final on Tuesday for a medal.
After the ranking round, Jeon Woong-tae said, “I really thought ‘I’m screwed’ at the beginning. My coach told me that I could do it and told me to fence with my legs rather than my hands and to move my legs a little more,” he said, adding that “even Chang Wan-yi (Seo) didn’t do well in the beginning, but we encouraged each other that we could do it.” “We only have one Olympics in this venue, so we tried to enjoy it. I told Chang Wanyi, ‘We can’t come here anymore. There will be no Paris Olympics again, so enjoy it,'” he said.
“I think the bracket met well in the form of being a bit strong in the beginning, focusing in the middle and being able to climb up in the end,” Jeon Woong-tae said, adding, “I thought it was not modern pentathlon, but ‘modern heptathlon’ including ‘luck.
The swimmer’s background and strength in the laser run (shooting + athletics) gave him the foundation to look beyond Tokyo in the final rankings. After seeing the fencing results, he said, “It seems like the top athletes bite off more than they can chew. It seems like there are some athletes who are doing really well and some who are not doing so well,” analyzed Jeon, who added: “It’s important to see who is focused in the rest of the events. I will be ready to give it my all in the final,” he said.
