"Ilyashenko delights with victory at Kazak Open Championships"
The Open Kazakhstan Championships came to an end over the weekend with four days of close competition culminating on Saturday 30 March. A total of 33 athletes from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine as well as the host nation took part with all age categories represented.
The Schedule was divided into two with the first day dedicated to Fencing and Swimming and the second focused on the Riding and the combined event.
Ukraine’s Pavlo Kirpulyanskyy once again proved his class to win the Fencing and clock up 1112 points to top the leaderboard going into the swim. Promising 18-year-old local talent Shukharev Vladislav was fastest in the pool with an impressive time of 2:02:39 but Kirpulyanskyy held on to top spot.
Kirpulyanskyy was last to take to his horse after being ahead on points and the Ukrainian sensation was simply irresistible as he went round the course at blistering speed and recorded a perfect ride to add 1200 points to his already impressive tally. Although he started the first in the combined, he was overtaken by the Kazak duo of Andray Soldatov and Pavel Ilyashenko, ranked #25 in the world, with the latter’s sharp-shooting ensuring he crossed the finish line ahead of his rivals, claiming an impressive gold medal for the host nation.
Vadim Chudnovsky, Kazakhstan National Team coach declared, “I am very satisfied with the results of Ilyashenko and Soldatov and also of the other young Kazak athletes. These results prove the strong development of Modern Pentathlon in our country!”
General Secretary Dmitry Tyurin, also appointed National Technical Observer by UIPM, stated, “ The competition was organised in good facilities, laser targets were used and also the horses were high level. This competition was also a test for the Asian Championships that will take place here in the end of October. We were happy to host the athletes from 3 Nations and we hope that more Nations will participate in the future in the International Competitions hosted in Kazakhstan”.