Korea end pentathlon worlds with gold in mixed relay

Kim Sun-woo and Jun Woong-tae of Korea took gold in the mixed relay at the UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Championships on Sunday, earning the world champion title in the final event of the pentathlon tournament.

Kim Sun-woo, left, and Jun Woong-tae of Korea celebrate after winning the mixed relay event at the UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Championships in Alexandria, Egypt on Sunday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Kim Sun-woo and Jun Woong-tae of Korea took gold in the mixed relay at the UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Championships on Sunday, earning the world champion title in the final event of the pentathlon tournament.

Kim and Jun dominated on the piste to secure their victory, winning 27 victories from 36 bouts with an additional four points in the bonus round to blow away the competition with six victories more than the next-best team.

The fencing performance allowed the pair to run away with the win, but it followed an already impressive effort on horseback, with only Korea and Chile finishing the riding section of the competition with a perfect score.

Although the technical events tend to be Korea's forte, Kim and Jun didn't lose any ground in the pool, finishing the swimming segment with a time of 1 minute and 58.25 seconds, less than two seconds behind first place France on 1 minute and 56.81 seconds.

With such a dominant lead, all the Korean duo had to do was avoid breaking anything and the laser run was essentially theirs to win. The pair delivered without any issues, with all the drama taking place behind them in the far more competitive race for second place.

Jun Woong-tae, left, and Kim Sun-woo celebrate after winning the mixed relay event at the UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Championships in Alexandria, Egypt on Sunday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

With the win, Jun has now taken two gold medals in the relay events, having also won the men's relay with Jung Jin-hwa.

"The 2022 season has been great, but in this World Championships my individual competition was not so good but I have two gold medals from men's relay so I'm very happy, and looking forward to preparing for next season," Jung said after the race.

Kim walks away from the world championships with three medals of her own, having also won bronze in the women's relay with Kim Se-hee and silver in the women's team event with Seong Seung-min and Jang Ha-eun.

"Today was really good — we had a really good ranking in fencing, riding, swimming and laser run," Kim said. "We're very happy."

Korea leaves the world championships with two gold, one silver and one bronze medal, but failed to see any strong results in the individual events. Jung finished highest in the men's event, at No. 14, while Jang finished the women's event in 13th place and Seong in 15th.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]