Amro El Geziry of Egypt set an Olympic record for modern pentathlon swimming but 2004 Athens gold medalist Andrey Moiseev of Russia took the overall lead after three disciplines in the men's event at the Yingdong Natatorium on Thursday.
El Geziry finished the 200m freestyle in 1 minute 55.86 seconds, smashing the previous record of 1:58.88 set by Moiseev at the Athens Games. El Geziry was in 17th place overall.
Nick Woodbridge of Britain was second in the pool with 1:55.96 and Eric Walther of Germany third in 2:00.84.
Moiseev took overall first from Chinese Qian Zhenhua by finishing sixth in the swimming in 2:02.55, leaving him on 3,524 points.
Moiseev is aiming to become only the second athlete to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in modern pentathlon, after Lars Hall of Sweden in 1952 and 1956.
Czech David Svoboda was equal second overall on 3,500 points after coming 17th in 2:05.40.
Qian slipped to joint second with Svoboda after finishing 22nd in 2:07.46. He had led after finishing second in the shooting and joint first in the fencing.
Earlier, Svoboda set an Olympic record as he won the shooting with a score of 191 and finished third in the fencing.
Moiseev of Russia had been third overall after sharing the first place in the fencing with Qian.
World No. 1 Ilya Frolov from Russia is trailing in 14th overall on 3,216 points.
The next activity is the riding show jumping when competitors will be randomly assigned a horse and have just 20 minutes of practice before the discipline starts.
The final event is the 3,000m running at 8:00 p.m. local time where the start is staggered according to points after the first four disciplines. The winner will claim overall gold for the men's modern pentathlon.
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2008)