His score of 1,179 points was five ahead of Italian Giorgio Malan and six in front of Egyptian Mohamed ElGendy in semi-final B.

The Kazakh impressed in fencing, finishing second, before placing eighth in swimming and 15th in the laser run.

South Koreans Seo Chang-wan and Jun Woong-tae topped the standings in semi-final A with scores of 1,172 points to make it into the final.

Jun will hold the lead going into Sunday's (June 12) final having won the fencing event today, defeating Sukharev in the discipline final.

Only one behind was Olympic champion Joe Choong of Britain, as were Hungarian Csaba Bohm and Egypt's Eslam Hamad.

Brice Loubet and Valentin Prades of France finished on 1,170.

The semi-finals took place prior to the UIPM's meeting with athletes with the fifth discipline on the agenda.

Riding was proposed to be replaced by the UIPM Executive Board with a different discipline due to controversies at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games surrounding animal welfare when a horse was punched in the face by a trainer.

Several horses pulled up during the riding section at the Games too.

Those in favour of keeping equestrian as part of modern pentathlon continue to state their opposition to obstacle racing replacing it.