Hungary’s Michelle Gulyas showed the steady eye and hand of a sharpshooter to win the women’s Modern Pentathlon gold medal with a world record points haul at the Paris Olympics on Sunday.
France’s Elodie Clouvel took the silver, after starting the final laser run with a 13 second advantage but losing it with a series of agonising misses in the target shooting, in front of her home crowd.
South Korea’s Seong Seung-min collected the bronze.
Gulyas finished with 1,461 points, nine more than Clouvel, whose time in hitting all the laser targets during four shooting stops in the 3,000 metre run was by far the slowest of the field.
French hopeful Marie Oteiza’s chances had disappeared in the opening show jumping round when she fell and hit the bars as her horse, Babouchka de la Bride, refused a fence.
Spaniard Laura Heredia suffered three refusals on Dollar US D’Ecly and was also eliminated from the round.
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Britain’s reigning champion Kate French had withdrawn earlier due to sickness. Her absence opened the door for Germany’s Annika Zillekens as reserve.
The equestrian round, taking place in the open air with the glorious Palace of Versailles as a backdrop, marked the last appearance of horses, with Modern Pentathlon due to switch to obstacle courses for the next Games in Los Angeles.
Zillekens played a part in that change when she competed under her maiden name of Schleu at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and was a favourite for gold until her horse repeatedly refused to jump.
German coach Kim Raisner then struck the horse with her fist, an incident that put the focus on equine welfare and raised questions about the involvement of animals in sport.
Zillekens had a clear round in the jumping on Sunday.
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