Sofia World Cup Day 2 Recap
by USA Modern Pentathlon
Day 2 was the men’s semifinal here at the first World Cup in Sofia, Bulgaria. 99 men were entered, and Team USA was represented by Amro Elgeziry, Brendan Anderson, and Sam Ruddock. Elegeziry has already qualified for Tokyo based on his 2019 Pan Am Games finish, and Anderson and Ruddock are looking to gain Olympic Ranking Points in their quest for a Tokyo qualification.
Group A hadAnderson and his day started with the fencing event. Anderson had some up and down moments during the fencing event. He finished in 25th place in the event with a score of 187 points. The swimming event was next, and Anderson swam in heat 3 lane 6. His time of 2:08.71 was a 4 second improvement in this pool and he finished in 15th place for the event. Going into the laser run,Anderson was starting in 21st place. He had the 15thfastest time of the group, with a time of 12:07. He had one athlete pass him and he finished in 22nd overall, missing out on Saturday’s final.
Elgeziry and Ruddock represented Team USA in Group C. Swimming was the first event for the athletes. Ruddock swam out of heat 4 in lane 5. He won his heat with a time of 2:04.93 and placed in 6th for the swimming event. Elgeziry came in as the fastest seed and swam a 2:01.85 to win the event by almost two seconds. Up next was the fencing event. Ruddock finished with a total of 201 points, a 20-point increase from the previous world cup. That fence put him in 16th place after two events. Elgeziry had a rough fence, scoring 166 points which moved him to 26th place before the laser run event. With a time of 12:38, Ruddock crossed the finish line in 25th place overall in the group.Elgeziry had a total time of 12:52 and dropped back to 30th place overall. With both those finishes, Elgeziry and Ruddock were unable to qualify for the finals.
No Team USA men were able to advance to Saturday’s final. Up next for Team USA will be the second World Cup here in Sofia starting on April 15th. Follow Team USA results at uipm.org. GO TEAM USA!!!