Swimming: Egypt’s al-Geziry wins pentathlon

LONDON: Egypt’s Amroal Geziry lowered his own men’s modern pentathlon swimming Olympic record to move up to fifth in the overall standings behind China’s Cao Zhongrong. Al-Geziry posted a time of one minute 55.70 seconds in the 200m freestyle, beating the previous benchmark he set of 1:55.86 in Beijing four years ago. Cao, tied for second after the opening fencing round, took the overall lead with a points tally of 2,376 after registering the third fastest time at the Aquatics Centre. Early leader David Svoboda of the Czech Republic is placed second on 2,328 points. The competition next moves to Greenwich Park for the show jumping third leg, with the event concluding with shooting and running, staged in a combined leg for the first time at an Olympics.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2012.