Joseph Choong was the second British winner in the modern pentathlon event in two days at Tokyo 2020 taking the men's title with an Olympic record points haul ©Getty Images

Joseph Choong of Britain won men’s modern pentathlon gold with an Olympic record of 1482 points. 

Silver went to Ahmed Elgendy of Egypt with a score of 1477, while Jun Woongtae of South Korea took bronze with 1470.

Choong had started the day with a third place in swimming, held for the first time in the main stadium, but moved into the overall lead after the fencing bonus round before the riding phase where horses are drawn at random.

He drew Clntino, the same horse ridden by his compatriot and women’s gold medallist Kate French the previous day.

"It was a bit of a lucky charm - I drew the same horse," Choong said.

"When I was drawing that ball out with the horse’s number, I was just thinking, don’t get one of the difficult ones."

He had two fences down but still led overall which gave him a 12 second start on the laser run.

"I wasn’t really aware of what was behind me but focussing on trying to stay at the front," Choong added.

"It is pretty awesome how it is staggered so that literally the first person crosses the line wins. 

Egypt's Ahmed Elgendy won silver in the men's modern pentathlon behind Choong ©Getty Images
Egypt's Ahmed Elgendy won silver in the men's modern pentathlon behind Choong ©Getty Images

"It makes it a really obvious race as to who is in the lead but it can change so much because you can have a fast runner who struggles on the shoot or vice versa.

"You can never really predict with any certainty what will happen."

Champion at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games Elgendy moved on to Choong’s shoulder on the final lap of the run but Choong pulled away to win gold.

"On the last lap I actually was catching up, I already closed the gap but I know that Joe has a great finish in all races in all competitions," Elgendy said as he became the first Olympic modern pentathlon medallist from an African nation.

South Korean Jun was also in touch.

"I was fourth before the laser run," Jun said.

"I thought I could have a chance for silver but Elgendy was too fast. I tried my best but I want to show you a better performance next time around."

Choong pulled away to become the first British man to win individual gold in the event.

The only previous British male gold medallists were the trio of Jim Fox, Danny Nightingale and Adrian Parker who won the team event in 1976.

It was also the first time that male and female gold medallists had both come from the same country.