Liebig produced an outstanding display in the fencing discipline in the second qualifying group of the day, recording a total of 23 victories.

He followed up that display with a time of 2min 6.82sec in the swimming event and then clocked 11:38.04 in the combined discipline.

It gave the German a tally of 1186 points at the close of the second day of the fourth World Cup event of the season, the highest total of the qualification event.

Britain’s James Cooke achieved 1175 points in the opening qualification group to seal his progression to Sunday’s (April 17) final, with 93 athletes vying for places.

World champion Pavlo Tymoshchenko also safely made it through to the final on his return from injury, following a strong display in the combined event.

The world number one will expect to face competition from Russia’s Ilia Frolov, while six Hungarian competitors made it through in front of their home crowd.

Competition will continue tomorrow with the women’s final scheduled to take place, with the men’s event drawing to a close the following day.

Proceedings will be brought to a close with the mixed team relay on Monday (April 18).