Elodie Clouvel claimed gold in the opening event of the season ©UIPM

France's Elodie Clouvel claimed women's gold in the opening event of the International Modern Pentathlon Union World Cup season in Cairo.

Clouvel was hoping to back up her qualifying performance from two days ago, when she topped the overall standings.

The Rio 2016 silver medallist began strongly with a seventh place finish in the fencing discipline after 22 wins, before she clocked 2min 10.98sec in the swimming event.

This effort put her into the lead in the standings, before she placed 13th in the riding event of the competition at the Cairo International Stadium in Egypt's capital.

Clouvel rounded off the day by completing the combined event in a time of 12:57.40, which proved enough to claim the gold on 1,339 points.

"I am very happy and this feels like my comeback, because last year for me was not very good in training," Clouvel said.

"This year I started training very hard with my team, and I am so happy.

"My best part was the laser-run, because in my head I knew I was strong from all the hard training.

"My major goals for the season are European Championships and World Championships so this was a great start.

"Here in Cairo we have had nice facilities, nice horses - a very good competition."

Hungary's Tamara Alekszejev finished as the runner-up, after she finished 12 points down on Clouvel's score.

The podium was rounded off by Turkey's Ilke Ozyuksel, who claimed bronze with a total of 1,325.

The men's final is set to take place tomorrow.