Defending Olympic modern pentathlon champion Andrey Moiseev won the gold medal on Thursday at the Beijing Olympics with a total 5632 points.

The Russian had a 84 point advantage over Lithuanian Edvinas Krungolcas and another Lithuanian Andrejus Zadneprovskis, who was a further 24 points behind.

The 29-year-old Russian, who is also a three-time world champion, managed only to win the fencing section of the competition, but was strong enough in the other disciplines to deny the two Lithuanians the gold medal.

Krungolcas, who twice won the world championships, but finished just 31st in Athens, needed to make up too much ground in the final 3,000m cross country race to be able to snatch the gold medal away from Moiseev.

Zadneprovskis, who won the silver medal in Athens four years ago, managed to edge his way onto the podium in the swimming and riding component, where he finished fifth and second respectively.

The women's modern pentathlon will be held on Friday.