By Gary Anderson

April 6 – Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania showed why she is the Olympic and world champion by taking World Cup gold in Cairo ©Getty Images Lithuania's Olympic and world champion Laura Asadauskaite demonstrated her prowess by overcoming her rivals in a tight battle to the finish at the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) World Cup in Cairo, which also saw Italy's Riccardo de Luca take the men's title and mixed team relay gold going to Russia.


The Police Academy in Cairo was the setting for the second World Cup event of the year and the finals weekend saw the women's competition first to be decided.

Asadauskaite and China's Qian Chen laid down their markers straight away by topping the rankings after the fencing discipline, ahead of Germany's Beijing 2008 Olympic Champion Lena Schoneborn.

A steady performance in the pool followed by another strong showing in the riding discipline had Asadauskaite sitting in third place behind Chen and Poland's Oktawia Nowacka going into her strongest event, the run/shoot.

The Lithuanian then demonstrated her renowned accuracy and speed by being first away from the range in the second round of shooting.

Chen pegged back Asadauskaite in the last passage at the range but in the first straight, Asadauskaite accelerated and left her rival trailing to go on to victory unchallenged in the final 800 metres.

Nowacka managed to keep pace with Chen and eventually pipped the Chinese athlete to the line to take the silver medal.

It was a similar story in the men's event, as 2012 European champion de Luca made his decisive move in the final run/shoot discipline.

The Italian was vying with Christopher Patte throughout the day after the Frenchman got off to a great start in the fencing competition.

Both athletes maintained their form in the swimming and horse riding disciplines, leaving it all down to the run/shoot.

Patte was the first to blink, missing a couple of crucial shots on the range, giving de Luca the opportunity to stretch his legs in the final 800m to take his first international win since his European success in Sofia two years ago.

2012 European champion Riccardo de Luca got back to winning ways at the World Cup in Cairo this weekend ©Getty Images 2012 European champion Riccardo de Luca got back to winning ways at the World Cup in Cairo this weekend ©Getty Images



"This victory comes as a result of the work done by my team and my coaches," said de Luca afterwards.

"We have been doing all the right things.

"Now I am very happy."

The Czech Republic's 22-year-old Jan Kuf announced his arrival on the elite international scene by taking bronze in an impressive performance.

Kuf regrouped overnight and took part in today's mixed team relay competition with Barbora Kodedova.

The Czech pair began the final combined event 12 seconds behind Russia's Donata Rimsaite and Dmitry Suslov, who began the day by registering the only sub-two minute time in the pool while also recording a perfect score of 300 points in the riding discipline.

The Russian duo never looked in any danger of relinquishing their lead during the run/shoot and secured the gold in comfortable fashion ahead of Kuf and Kodedova, while de Luca partnered Gloria Tocchi to claim bronze for Italy.

Next up on the World Cup circuit is a trip to Chengdu, China for the third event of the season, which gets underway on April 16.

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