The women had a day off in the modern pentathlon while the men competed in two groups (semifinal A and semifinal B). The top nine from each semifinal advance to the final on Saturday.
The new 90-minute format made the event lively and quick in comparison to the old format that used to take over five hours. Egypt’s Ahmed Elgendy withstood a subpar equestrian round to win the first semifinal group. Japan's Sato Taishu won semifinal B.
The men wrap up competition at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday.
Men's semifinal A results
Ahmed Elgendy won the semifinal with an Olympic record 1,516 points. His day didn’t get off to the best start when in the showjumping event his horse refused a jump and he almost fell off. A fall is now an automatic elimination from the discipline and would have ended Elgendy’s medal hopes. Instead, Elgendy managed to stay on the horse and finished 17th with 267 points.
The Egyptian knew how close he was to being out of the competition. “The thing that I was most worried about was to fall down. Luckily, it didn’t happen, so then I had to do a re-take really quickly and push my horse very hard and just focus on what to do for every jump.
Top competitors Switzerland’s Alexandre Dallenbach, Hungary’s Csaba Bohm and Latvia’s Pavels Svecovs all finished the riding discipline with no penalties and 300 points.
Dallenbach reflected on the highs and lows of the equestrian discipline. “It was the greatest horse ride of my life and to have that connection and share it with a horse... Ten years ago I was terrified. I finally started to realise the love (of horses) and it’s a beautiful sport. I’m going to miss that."
“It’s awesome and it teaches kids and people how to take care of animals. But anyway, I’m ready to be a ninja warrior so you know it’s what you got to do,” he added.
In the bonus fencing round, Mexico’s Emiliano Hernandez and France’s Valentin Prades scored five wins each to earn 10 points in the round. Bohm had a bad fencing round and dropped to 14th after the event.
Entering the swim, Elgendy, Svecovs, Prades and Dallenbach were the top four competitors. Dallenbach finished with the top time in the swim, while Bohm and Elgendy faced off in the same heat to finish with the second and fourth fastest times of the round, respectively.
Elgendy looked in total control during the laser run, the last event of the semifinal. He finished with a time of 10:07, the second-fastest of the day. France’s Jean-Baptiste won the round with a time of 9:48 after flawless shooting in front of a lively crowd.
Bohm was under the most pressure during the laser run. He entered the race ninth in the overall standings. He made things interesting in the middle of the run when he missed a few targets, opening the door for other competitors. However, he supplemented the subpar shooting with faster runs to finish with a time of 10:04, the third fastest on the day. It was enough to score him 696 points in the laser run and move him to eighth overall and advance to the finals.
RIDING RESULTS I BONUS FENCING RESULTS I SWIMMING RESULTS I LASER RUN RESULTS
Men's semifinal B results
The second semifinal also saw a leader in Ukraine’s Oleksandr Tovkai struggle in the riding event, something the organizers of the modern pentathlon were hoping to avoid this year. Tovkai’s horse had three refusals and he finished at the bottom of the event.
Great Britain’s Charlie Brown had an excellent riding program — he finished half a second under the time with a clean ride for max points. He led a group of perfect riders including Japan’s Sato Taishu and Seo Changwan of South Korea.
Defending champion Joe Choong of Great Britain had the fencing bonus round he needed, with four wins to keep him within contention of the top 9 that would advance, it helped erase his below average regular fencing round on Thursday.
Choong’s day and medal chances significantly improved when he won the swim discipline with a time of 1:59.
The laser sprint had multiple lead changes behind good efforts in the shooting rage. Ultimately, Choong continued his impressive back half of the semifinal event to win the race with a time of 10:05.18. He finished eighth overall in the semifinal standings, completing the 180 from his poor fencing round.
Fellow Brit Brown delivered a valiant effort in the run to finish second, but it wouldn’t be enough to advance to the final as he finished 10th overall, just three points shy of the final. Sato and South Korea’s Jun Woong-Tae finished 1-2 in the overall standings of semifinal B while yesterday’s leader and expected medal contender Tovkai finished 17th overall and ended his Olympic competition.
RIDING RESULTS l BONUS FENCING RESULTS l SWIMMING RESULTS l LASER RUN RESULTS