Joe Choong admits he fulfilled a lifetime dream by completing his glittering set of global titles at the UIPM 2022 Pentathlon World Championships in Alexandria.
The reigning Olympic champion, who also won gold at the 2019 World Cup Final, dominated the men’s final by building on his lead from the competition's opening fencing ranking round.
He then produced a perfect ride and the third-fastest time in the swimming pool to begin the laser-run with a 20-second lead.
Home Egyptian athlete Mohamed Elgendy was a couple of seconds back in second while Hungary’s Balazs Szep completed the podium after an outstanding run, moving up from 11th to third.
“I have the set now, so I’m pretty pleased,” said Choong, who won silver when Britain last contested the World Championships in 2019.
“Ever since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to say I was the best in the world at something. I won the Olympics, and that’s the biggest thing you can do, but world champion means you are literally No.1 in the world.
“I took a lot of time out after the Olympics, which I needed mentally, and this was the first competition where I have felt anywhere close to the level I had at Tokyo.
“I’ve been super-focussed and it’s been a nice competition.”
The 27-year-old’s excellent return of 24 victories and just 11 defeats during Wednesday’s fencing ranking round saw him in a three-way tie for the lead with Pele Uibel of Germany and South Korea’s Jinhwa Jung.
Choong edged ahead after picking up two more victories in the fencing bonus round before stretching his advantage with an excellent swim.
His 200m freestyle time of 2:01.12 was only bettered by two other athletes in the 18-man field.
That meant he started the laser-run with a healthy 20-second advantage over Uibel and third-placed Elgendy.
The Egyptian quickly moved up to second and even began to eat away at the Brit’s lead but Choong had conserved his energy well and was able to sprint over the finish line to take gold.
The win makes Choong the first Brit to win World Championships gold since Jamie Cooke in Mexico City in 2018.
It was also a successful World Championship for Jess Varley, Charlie Follett and Olivia Green, who secured the combined women’s team title.
Green led the way for the Brits going into Saturday’s final starting the day in sixth ahead of Follett in 14th and Varley who sat in 16th.
As in the men’s final, more than half of the competitors recorded a perfect round in the riding including a faultless Follett, while Green and Varley picked up just one obstacle penalty each to score 293 points apiece.
Follett’s climb up the rankings continued in the swimming pool, with her time of 2:15.39 the fifth-fastest of the final and enough to move her to sixth in the overall standings.
Meanwhile, Green – the only Brit to add additional points in the fencing bonus round - remained in the hunt for a bronze after a brilliant start to the laser-run.
The final shoot proved tense and allowed other athletes to join the podium-chasing pack, including Turkey’s Ilke Ozyuksel who went on to take bronze. Green left the range in sixth but produced a sprint to cross the line in fifth – her best-ever finish in a senior international women’s individual final.
World Cup Final silver-medallist Varley once again produced an excellent laser-run but had to settle for seventh while Follett crossed the line in 10th.
The Brits’ combined scores ensured they took the team title with 4,161 points, clear of second-placed South Korea.
Elsewhere this weekend, Olympic champion Joe Clarke rounded off a strong showing by Great Britain at the Canoe Slalom World Championships by winning gold in the men’s extreme kayak.
Clarke’s superb run at the Augsburg Eiskanal in Germany to retain the title he won in Bratislava last year was the fifth medal claimed by the Brits at the championships and add to a list of accomplishments that includes a gold medal in the K1 in Brazil six years ago.
The 29-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent finished ahead of France’s Anatole Delassus and Germany’s Stefan Hengst to add to the silver medal he earned in the men’s K1 team event on the opening day.
Clarke’s gold ensured Great Britain finished third in the medal table, behind the host nation and the Czech Republic, and came just after Kimberley Woods had claimed silver in the women’s extreme kayak.
Woods finished behind Australia’s Jessica Fox and Andorra’s Mònica Dòria Vilarrubla to make up for just missing out on a medal in the women’s C1 behind team-mate Mallory Franklin earlier in the day.
Franklin, who won silver in the same event at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo took bronze to finish on the podium along with gold medallist Ricarda Funk of Germany and silver medallist Fox, with Woods finishing fourth.
“The final wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. I felt very much like I was on the back foot at times, so to scrape a medal with that I’m really happy with it,” said Franklin, 28.
“It was so tight between me and Kimberley and I really feel for her, it’s so frustrating to be that close.
For Clarke, Franklin and Woods, it was a second medal of the championships after all three were part of teams that finished in the podium places on the first day of competition.
Clarke claimed silver alongside Bradley Forbes-Cryan and Chris Bowers in what was a tight men’s team K1, just 1.78 seconds behind Germany and 1.99 second ahead of bronze medallists France.
Later in the day, Franklin and Woods were part of the women’s C1 team to win bronze, just a second behind silver medallists Germany, with the Czech Republic claiming gold.
Elsewhere Adam Burgess reached the final of the men’s C1, eventually finishing 10th, while Woods came 11th in the women’s K1 on what was a busy final day for the 26-year-old from Rugby.
Cyclist Kye Whyte added another medal to his collection by winning silver at the BMX World Championships in Nantes, France.
For Whyte, who was another to claim a medal for Team GB at Tokyo last year in taking silver in Japan, it was a first medal at a World Championship.
The 22-year-old from Peckham finished 0.132 seconds behind gold medallist Simon Marquart of Switzerland, with Joris Daudet of France taking the bronze. Sportsbeat