Youth and Sports Minister Khalid Abdel Aziz on Monday took part in a press conference organized by the Egyptian Modern Pentathlon Federation to launch the 2017 UIPM Senior World Championships, held for the first time on African soil.

Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) President Klaus Schormann attended the event.

Abdel Aziz hailed the UIPM's confidence in Egypt's organizational capacities, praising the Egyptian pentathletes who have achieved good results in the 2017 UIPM Junior World Championships, which recently took place in Hungary, and the U19 World Championships, that was held from July 17 to 24 in Prague, Czech Republic.

The championships in Cairo run from August 22 to 28, with 21 medals on offer to athletes from 39 nations.

The 2017 event marks the 20th anniversary of the first combined male and female World Championships, held in Sofia (BUL).

The competition is being held at the Pegasus Sports Club.

This is the first time UIPM's flagship senior competition has been staged in Africa and the local organizers in Egypt have worked hard for many years and proved their ability to host high-class Modern Pentathlon competitions, Schormann said.

The 169 pentathletes who qualified to compete have gathered in Cairo ahead of the Men’s and Women’s Relay competitions, which took place on August 22 and 23. The Men's Individual Final follows on August 26, before the Women's Individual Final on August 27 with the Mixed Relay concluding the championships on August 28.

The defending champions will be hard pressed to retain their titles: Hungary's Sarolta Kovacs faces renewed competition from legendary Olympic champions Laura Asadauskaite (LTU) and Lena Schoeneborn (GER) among others while Valentin Belaud will be up against the ultra-consistent Pavlo Tymoshchenko (UKR) and the 2016 Olympic champion, Alexander Lesun (RUS).

Source : Mena