GUIYANG, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Czechia's Matej Lukes won the men's title at the 2026 Modern Pentathlon World Championships on Sunday, finishing with 1,586 points in the final in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province.
Lukes, 24, entered the final as the world No. 1 and improved on his bronze medal at last year's World Championships. He was followed by Russia's Egor Gromadskii with 1,581 points and South Korea's Seo Chang-wan with 1,576.
Speaking after the competition, Lukes said: "It's crazy feelings to win this gold. I am so happy, and we did maximum to be this place. We trained a lot and this is the end, so I'm so happy and proud of my team and myself too."
"It's super challenging for athletes, of course. But challenge is what we came for and what the fans want to see. My strategy is to be like the best in every discipline, like how can I manage it and to push maximum," he added.
Asked about the key to his strong performance and decisive comeback in the laser run, Lukes said: "It's like a one piece painted on. It's not like I'm even running fast as I can, I will swim fast as I can. It's like you must swim a little bit slower to run fast. So, this is the strategy. It is just like focus on the run in your tunnel, and don't look around or care about others. Just be focus on yourself."
Looking ahead, Lukes said qualifying for the Olympic Games was his main goal.
"The most important goal and the biggest goal for every pentathlete, it's Olympic Games especially. Next year, I will start to Olympic qualifications. So, I will do a lot of training for collecting the points to the Olympics in LA." Lukes said.
The 2026 World Championships were held in Guiyang from Aug. 24 to 30. Enditem
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