Joe Choong became Britain’s first winner of the men’s modern pentathlon as Team GB completed a clean sweep at the Tokyo Stadium.
Just 24 hours after Kate French claimed the women’s title, Choong led the multi-sport event from start to finish and eventually reached the tape five seconds ahead of Egyptian Ahmed Elgendy.
Choong is the first Team GB athlete to even win a medal in the men’s individual event since its inception in 1912 and Britain are the first country to do the double at one Games. It is Britain’s 20th gold medal at the Tokyo Games.
Joseph Choong won gold for Britain to complete fantastic 24 hours in modern pentathlon
The modern pentathlete, who hails from Kent, kisses his gold medal on the podium
Choong wasn’t entirely accurate in the four visits to the shooting range but did enough
His strength in the running enabled Choong to hold off his rivals to finish in first position
The world No 1 was in front from Friday’s fencing and kept his lead throughout today’s swimming and showjumping.
That meant Choong held a 12-second lead going into the laser run finale. And though he was briefly overtaken by Elgendy following the shooting on the final lap, he retook the lead in the final 200metres and won with a sprint finish.
His British team-mate James Cooke finished in ninth place.
‘I pulled myself together and this time I’ve nailed it,’ Choong told the BBC afterwards.
‘I’ve always said I wanted to be the best in the world. This is literally a dream come true.
Choong competes in the show jumping stage of the modern pentathlon earlier on Saturday
The gold medallist takes on Alexander Lifanov of the Russian Olympic Committee in fencing
‘I’m in shock. I was swearing in my head. There were a couple of heavy jumps on the ride, the swim was good, the fencing was good and the running was pretty tactical. The shooting was pretty sketchy but I pulled myself together.’
Choong, 25, hails from Orpington in Kent and has previously won silver at the 2018 World Championships in Mexico City in the team event.
He held a 12 second lead at the beginning of the laser run – a 3,000 metre run combined with four visits to the shooting range where the target must be hit five times – and never looked like relinquishing that lead.
He held plenty of energy in reserve for the final part of the run, an insurance policy as his rivals shot with greater accuracy.
Choong started the laser run with a 12-second advantage and didn’t relinquish his lead
Kate French won a sensational gold medal for Team GB in the women’s modern pentathlon
He missed three shots on his first trip to the range, allowing his rivals to eat into that 12-second advantage but he was faultless with his first five shots second time around.
Egypt’s Ahmed El Gendy surged up from 13th position to overtake Choong going into the final lap but the British athlete drew on his reserves of stamina in the last 800 metres and ultimately won comfortably.
Choong rates fencing and swimming as his two strongest disciplines, and he certainly lived up to that, topping the table from Thursday’s fencing with 25 victories and 10 defeats.
He then finished third in the 200 metres freestyle swim just behind team-mate Jamie Cooke, who was back in 16th after the fencing, before adding another two points in the fencing bonus round.
Choong (centre) has his face mask adjusted by bronze medallist Jun Woong-tae (right) of South Korea on the podium. Egypt’s Ahmed Elgendy (left) won silver.
That left him 19 points ahead of Jung Jin-hwa of South Korea heading into the show jumping, which caused such a stir on Friday when German leader Annika Schleu tearfully tried to get her horse to cooperate and scored zero points.
Schleu’s behaviour towards Saint Boy was the subject of much conjecture on social media and her coach, Kim Raisner, was thrown out of the Games for punching the animal.
There was less drama in the men’s event, with the leaders mostly keeping their hopes alive.
Cooke had a good round, knocking only one fence down, with Jung matching that. Choong, riding the same horse on which French managed a clear round, clattered through the first fence but only had one more down to keep his nose in front.
Choong was second in Rio going into the laser run only to struggle on the range and finish 10th, prompting him to quip about his Tinder profile and his trigger control.
Choong had good reason to feel confident having won the World Cup Final, which doubled as the test event, in Tokyo in 2019, as well as a World Cup in Bulgaria earlier this year.
And so it proved as he held his nerve on the range this time to achieve his Olympic dream.