Korea's Seong Seung-min wins bronze in modern pentathlon's last year with horses

Korea’s Seong Seung-min, the reigning world champion, took bronze in the women’s individual modern pentathlon at the Paris Olympics on Sunday.

Korea's Seong Seung-min, riding Fast du Pre, reacts during the riding portion of the women's individual modern pentathlon final on Sunday in Versailles, France. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Korea’s Seong Seung-min took bronze in the women’s individual modern pentathlon at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, winning one of the last medals in the final year the century-old five-discipline Olympic event would run with horses at the Palace of Versailles.

Seong, the reigning women's individual world champion, started the laser run in the third spot with a 31-second delay. She shaved down the distance with every lap as the final quickly became a three-way race between France, Hungary and Korea for gold.

Seong held on to her spot in the top three through the end of the laser run, finishing in 11:43.87 for bronze as France's Elodie Clouvel took silver and Hungary's Michelle Gulyas took gold, notching a new world record.

And Seong made history, too. With her bronze medal, she became the first-ever Korean woman to medal in the Olympic pentathlon, which debuted as a medal sport in 1912.

Both Seong and Korea's Kim Sun-woo had qualified for the final, setting up a chance for Korea to nab one of the last medals up for grabs on the last day of the Paris Games.

Seong on Saturday snatched the fourth spot in Semifinal A, scoring 1,400 points over the five qualifying rounds — riding, fencing, swimming and laser run. There are two fencing rounds, and laser run includes both a sprint and a shooting component.

Kim meanwhile grabbed the fifth spot in Semifinal B with 1,396 points. The top nine athletes from each semifinal group qualified for the 18-woman final on Sunday.

Neither had grabbed a spot in the top three in Sunday’s final by the end of the fencing bonus round, the third stage of the competition, with Seong in fifth place and Kim in ninth, even as Seong scored a perfect 300 in the riding portion.

But both made up for lost ground in the 200-meter freestyle swim. Seong won her heat with a time of 2:11.47 , the second fastest time overall, for 288 points. Kim swam 2:17.67 and added 275 points to jump up to sixth.

Competitors swim during during the 200-meter freestyle in the women's individual final of the modern pentathlon at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Sunday in Versailles, France. [AP/YONHAP]

In modern pentathlon, each athlete’s points from fencing, riding and swimming are tallied to determine their starting position for the laser run. The winner of the laser run takes gold.

And Seong held onto her position through the laser run, challenging for second but remaining comfortably in third, to secure Korea a place in one of the final medal ceremonies of this year's Olympics.

Seong was perhaps Korea’s best chance yet at landing a spot on the women’s podium. The 21-year-old entered the pool at the Paris Games as the reigning individual women’s world champion, becoming the first Korean woman to win an individual modern pentathlon world title in Zhengzhou, China earlier this year.

And 27-year-old Kim, a three-time Olympian, was after her first medal from the Games. She finished in sixth place on Sunday.

Korea end the Paris Olympics with one medal in modern pentathlon. Jun Woong-tae and Seo Chang-wan failed to medal in the men’s final a day earlier, placing sixth and seventh respectively.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]