Australian Chloe Esposito clinches gold in modern pentathlon

Now she’s won Australia’s first medal in the Modern Pentathlon of any colour, and it happens to be gold.

It was a first place at the Hungarian championships in June that sparked the thought in Esposito’s mind.

“Since I’ve been young, I’ve known I wanted to go to Olympic Games and I was lucky enough to come to my second Olympics and have the support of my family”, said Esposito, who finished seventh at the 2012 London Games.

Her sacrifices included moving to Budapest two years ago to work on her fencing and enjoy better competition, leaving her fiance and her mum back home.

“I was over the moon with my fencing”, she said.

“I knew there was going to be a day where everything came together”.

Chloe Esposito with her gold medal.

In the fencing bonus round – a sudden death, reverse progressive tournament – she scored one extra point, defeating Margaux Isaksen (USA).

Esposito started the running/shooting combination final in fourth, but ran past her competitors with a strong push.

Despite this, Esposito proved to be a quick shot at the shooting ranges and overtook Poland’s Oktawia Nowacka at the final shooting range. She is coached by her father, Daniel, who competed in the modern pentathlon at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. “The other (athletes) when they see it, they think it’s a bit over the top, but really it’s not”, Daniel Esposito said.

She was the seventh fastest swimmer overall at the end of all the heats.

Chloe will next compete in heat four of the 200-metres swimming at 1.15am on Saturday morning.