France's Jean-Baptiste Mourcia celebrates winning the gold medal in the individual men's event at the UIPM Pentathlon Junior World Championships in Drzonkow ©UIPM

France's Jean-Baptiste Mourcia raced to a storming victory in the men's individual final at the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) Pentathlon Junior World Championships in Drzonkow.

At the start of the final discipline - the laser run - Mourica and defedning champion Ahmed Elgendy of Egypt were 29 seconds behind the leader, Like Pillage of Great Britain.

Pillage held a slender seven-second advantage over a four-man group headed by Russia's Andrei Zuev. 

But, remarkably, one of the leading five were to win a medal, swept aside by the relentless pace set by Mourica and Elgendy.

Mourcia moved ahead at the second shoot and soon built a nine-second lead.

By the time they reached the third shoot, Elgendy had overtaken Zuev and was in second place.

Zuev re-passed him as the final lap started but faded as first Elgendy move back in the silver medal spot and then Lukasz Gutkowski of Poland, roared on by the home crowd.

Mourcia held on to his first spot with the best laser run time of the day, finishing just under seven seconds ahead of Elgendy and Gutkowski.

Gutkowski was congratulated afterwards by Janusz Peciak, Poland's 1976 Olympic gold medallist and now the UIPM Executive Board member for sport.

Gutkowski had also won a silver medal in the relay earlier in the Championships.

The 19-year-old Mourcia had finished 25th in this competition in Kladno in the Czech Republic last year, having been fifth in Szekesfehervar in Hungary in 2017. 

The European Under 19 champion in 2017, he confirmed his exciting potential at senior level in 2018 when he finished eighth and fourth in the UIPM Pentathlon World Cup series in Cairo and Kecskemet in Hungary respectively.

"I’m so happy - it’s unbelievable," Mourcia said. 

"I think it’s one of the best moments of my short life. 

"We have a big champion in my Federation, and I hope to follow the road of world number one Valentin Prades.

"I hope my Federation are proud of me."

Zuev had the consolation of leading Russia to team gold alongside Ivan Tarasov in ninth and Sergey Kolbasenko 28th. 

The silver medal went to Belarus thanks to Yauheni Arol in eighth, Mikita Ivarouski 17th and Maksim Maruk 18th.

The bronze medal to South Korea with Kim Woocheol in sixth, Kim Sedong 19th and Lee Jonghyeon 23rd.