PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Michal Sedlecky of the Czech Republic won the final event, the 3,000-meter run, and vaulted from fifth place to first to take the gold medal Friday in the 2002 men's Modern Pentathlon World Championships.

Erik Johansson of Sweden won the equestrian competition and was third overall going into the final event. He held a comfortable lead in the 3,000 until Sedlecky began closing the gap at the two-thirds mark.

Sedlecky passed Johansson midway through the final lap and won with a time of 9 minutes, 25.09 seconds to Johansson's 9:27.89.

Sedlecky finished the overall standings with 5,640 points to Johansson's 5,632. Eric Walther of Germany finished third in the run to move from eighth place overall and won the bronze medal with 5,592.

Imre Tiidemann of Estonia was fourth with 5,572, while Marcin Horbacz of Poland had 5,556 and Niklau Bruenisholz of Switzerland 5,544.

Defending champion Gabor Balogh of Hungary finished tied for 19th with teammate Sandor Fulep in the final standings. He was third after the first event, shooting, but fell back after that. Defending silver medalist Viktor Horvath of Hungary finished 14th. Last year's bronze medalist, Tzanko Hantov of Bulgaria, did not compete in the 2002 finals.

The modern pentathlon consists of shooting (20 shots at targets 10 meters away), fencing (once with each competitor), a 200-meter freestyle swim, riding an unfamiliar horse over a 350/450-meter course with 12 hurdles, and the cross-country run. All the events are conducted in a single day.

Tiidemann won the shooting Friday, while the Ukraine's Andriy Yefremenko captured the fencing competition and Libor Capalini of the Czech Republic the swim.

The Hungarian team of Horvath, Balogh and Fulep leads the men's team standings with 16,036 points to 15,348 for second-place Czech Republic and 15,056 for third-place Lithuania.

Competition will continue for two more days on the campus of Stanford University, with the women's relay events Saturday and the men's relay Sunday.