Russian snatches pentathlon gold

Svatkovski blows a kiss to the crowd

Dmitry Svatkovski produced a blistering performance in the final three-kilometre run to snatch the men's modern pentathlon gold medal for Russia.

Svatkovski, 28, was standing out of the medals in fourth place before the cross country race.

But by the half-way stage he had overhauled all three of the leaders and went on comfortably secure his first Olympic title.

Hungary's Gabor Balogh took silver and Pavel Dovgal of Belarus the bronze.

Shooting

Svatkovski managed to win despite finishing only 14th in the shooting.

That disappointing performance was offset by first place in the riding, a fifth-placed finish in fencing and seventh in the swimming.

In a major surprise, both Lithuania's Andrejus Zadnesprovskis, the winner of the world championships in Italy in June, and American Chad Senior, who won this year's World Cup, finished outside of the medals.

Senior saw his chances of a medal destroyed when he finished a disastrous 18th in the riding.

The American finished sixth overall, one place ahead of Zadnesprovskis.

Heartbreak

There was heartbreak too for fourth-placed Sebastien Deleigne.

The Frenchman would have had silver but for a touch he received in the fencing from his teammate Olivier Clergeau.

Given that Clergeau, the better fencer of the two, had no realistic chance of a medal, he could have opted to take it easy against his compatriot.

Instead the two respected the Olympic tradition and fought a clean bout.

The crucial touch cost Deleigne forty points that would have made the difference between fourth place and silver.