POMONA >> The women’s final of modern pentathlon’s UIPM World Cup I will be held Saturday at Fairplex and The Claremont Club with 2008 Olympic gold medalist Lena Schoneborn of Germany among the competitors.
Samantha Achterberg is the lone American in the field of 36 athletes from 16 nations.
Sarolta Kovacs of Hungary was the top scorer in Thursday’s qualifying competition with 1,016 points, one more than Schoneborn.
The competition is scheduled to begin at 11 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 is $25 for for adults ages 13 and older and $15 for children ages 6-12.
Bence Demeter of Hungary won Friday’s men’s final, overcoming Olympic gold medalist Aleksander Lesun’s lead entering the final event and out- sprinting Pavlo Tymoshchenko of Ukraine, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist, for his first victory in a World Cup event following two third-place finishes.
Demeter was in second, 11 points behind Lesun, entering the laser-run. The leader starts the laser-run first, with the remaining athletes starting one second behind for each point they are behind. The first athlete to cross the finish line is the overall winner.
Demeter was third early in the laser-run behind Lesun and Tymoshchenko and second behind Tymoshchenko on the final lap.
“My tactic was to try to follow the first two competitors and then use my sprint in the last 100 meters,” said Demeter, who finished five seconds ahead of Tymoshchenko.
Demeter completed the laser-run at Fairplex’s Infield in 11 minutes, 24 seconds, the fourth-fastest time, receiving 616 points. He finished the competition with 1,450 points, five more than Tymoshchenko, who finished second.
Lesun, a Russian who won the 2016 Olympic gold medal, was third with 1,419 points. His laser-run time of 12:06 was the 31st-fastest among the 35 athletes and worth 574 points.
Alexander Nobis of Germany was fourth, with 1,412 points. David Svoboda of the Czech Republic, the 2012 gold medalist, was 14th with 1,387.
Nathan Schrimsher was the top finisher among the three Americans in the field of 36th, finishing 17th with 1,382 points. Logan Storie of the U.S. was 24th with 1,363, while Schrimsher’s younger brother Lucas was 33rd with 1,308.
Storie had the fastest time in the 200-meter swim at The Claremont Club, 1:55.85, one of two sub-2-minute times.
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.
Demeter had the third-best fencing performance, winning 24 of 34 bouts in the round-robin portion and one of two in the bonus round at Fairplex’s Expo Hall 8 for 244 points.
Lesun had the best fencing result, winning 26 of 34 bouts in the round- robin portion and his lone bout in the bonus round for 256 points.
Demeter had the 14th-fastest swimming time, 2:06.42, for 298 points, putting him second overall, six points behind Lesun, who received 292 points for the 26th-fastest swimming time, 2:09.09.
Demeter had 292 of a possible 300 points on the riding course in Fairplex’s Infield, but fell five points further behind Lesun, who received 297.
The event is the first international modern pentathlon competition in Los Angeles County since the 1984 Olympics.
The sport was invented in 1909 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, as a test of the skills required by 19th century cavalry soldiers
