Seong Seung-min of South Korea celebrates after winning bronze in the women's modern pentathlon at the Paris Olympics at Chateau de Versailles in Versailles, France, Sunday. Yonhap

Seong Seung-min claimed bronze in the women's modern pentathlon at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, becoming the first South Korean woman to grab an Olympic medal in her sport.

Seong, the 2024 world champion, finished behind Michelle Gulyas of Hungary and Elodie Clouvel of France for third place at the modern pentathlon venue set by Chateau de Versailles in Versailles, west of Paris.

Seong also became the first Asian woman to win a modern pentathlon medal. The women's event was first held at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and had been dominated by European athletes.

Gulyas set a world record with 1,461 points. Clouvel finished with 1,452 points, and Seong had 1,441 points.

Seong's South Korean teammate, Kim Sun-woo, finished eighth with 1,410 points.

Athletes took points from their fencing ranking round into Sunday's final. Seong had 225 points, and Kim had 220 points from the Thursday session.

In the opening event of the final, equestrian show jumping, Seong scored a perfect 300 points and Kim finished with 286 points.

Athletes all started at 300 points and lost points for faults, refusals and time violations.

In the fencing bonus round, an elimination tournament made up of 30-second bouts, athletes won two points for winning each bout and stayed on to face the next athlete, with the seeding determined by their ranking round results. The victory in the final bout was worth four points.

Kim won one bout for two points before losing to Elena Micheli of Italy, and Seong lost to the same fencer when her turn came up.

In the 200-meter freestyle swimming, a time of 2:30 was worth 250 points. One point was added for every 0.5 second faster than the target, and one point was deducted for every 0.5 second slower than the target.

Seong had the second-fastest time in swimming with 2:11.47, which gave her 288 points and put her in third place overall with 813 points heading into the final event, the laser run. Clouvel was on top with 844 points and Gulyas was next at 831 points.

The laser run combined the running of five 600m laps and four stops at a laser pistol shooting station, where athletes were required to hit five targets, set 10m away, before resuming their running.

Finishing positions in the laser run would determine the three medalists. And after Clouvel started, Gulyas followed 13 seconds later as part of the staggered starts. Seong, who trailed Clouvel by 31 points, got her start 31 seconds after the intermediate leader.

The competition soon turned into a three-person race, with Gulyas pulling away thanks to a strong shooting performance, and Seong and Clouvel battling for second place.

Seong fell further back of Clouvel after the final shooting stop, but she had already built enough of lead over Blanka Guzi of Hungary by that point. (Yonhap)