The reigning bronze medalist Jun Woong-tae and his South Korean teammate Seo Chang-wan qualified for the final of the men’s modern pentathlon at the Paris Olympics on Friday.
Jun finished in second place in Group B of the semifinals with 1,515 points, while Seo ranked fifth with 1,503 points. The top nine from Groups A and B will compete for medals in the final scheduled for Saturday.
The competition took place at the famed Chateau de Versailles in Versailles, west of Paris.
Jun won bronze at the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games to become the first South Korean pentathlete to win an Olympic medal. Seo is competing in his first Olympics.
In the riding show jumping portion, athletes began with 300 points, with deductions taken for faults, refusals, or time violations.
Seo scored a perfect 300 points, while Jun finished with 286 points due to 14 faults.
Next up was fencing’s bonus round, an elimination tournament featuring 30-second bouts with fencers seeded by results of Thursday’s ranking round. The winner of ea
ch bout stayed on to face the next athlete, and each win was worth two points. The victory for the final bout was worth four points.
Seo lost his one bout to Marvin Dogue of Germany. Jun defeated Taishu Sato of Japan in the penultimate bout but lost to Oleksandr Tovkai of Ukraine in the final bout to settle for two points.
Combined with their ranking round points, Jun earned 237 points from fencing, and Seo had 225.
In swimming, a 200-meter freestyle race, a time of 2:30 was worth 250 points, with one point added for every 0.5 second faster and one point deducted for every 0.5 second slower than the target time.
Jun finished fourth overall in swimming with a time of 1:59.90 and earned 311 points. Seo was fifth with 2:00.79, which gave him 309 points.
The semifinals finished with the laser run, which combined running of five 600m laps and four stops at a laser pistol shooting range. The target time of 13:20 was worth 500 points, with one point added for every second faster and one point deducted for every
second slower than the target.
Jun finished his run in 10:19.14 for 681 points. Seo scored 669 points at 10:31.53.
Jun said he feels “honored” to be competing at an Olympics being held in France, the birthplace of Pierre de Coubertin, who is credited with creating and introducing the modern pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
Having the iconic palace in the backdrop also added to his awe.
“The view was unbelievable. I felt alive,” Jun said. “Because the previous Olympics didn’t have any fans in the stands, it felt like a regular event. But this one feels like how an Olympics should be. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve competed in front of this many people.”
When he wasn’t taking in the stunning view of the palace, Jun was busy piling up his points.
“With the final coming right up tomorrow, it can be a little tiring. But it helps to have competed on this course before the final,” Jun said. “I just had a little taste of it. The real thing will come tomorrow.”
Seo said he had gooseb
umps being in front of such a large crowd.
“It was a lot of fun. I’ve never felt like this before,” he said. “I was so grateful that our sport could draw so many fans. I felt a bit overwhelmed but the experience I had today will help me be prepared for tomorrow.”
Points from the semifinals will be wiped clean for the final, but scores from the ranking round in fencing will be carried over.
Source: Yonhap News Agency