World Championship bronze medallist İlke Özyüksel and Buğra Ünal combined for success on the final day at the Ankara Equestrian Club.

Özyüksel had only made the semi-finals of the women's individual competition and Ünal failed to progress past the semi-final in the men's.

They dropped 18 points during the riding phase, but dominated the fencing ranking round.

Five nations completed their relay swim in less than two minutes, with multiple threats hoping to challenge Turkey going into the laser run.

However, strong running and shooting enabled them to beat Mexico's Manuel Padilla and Mariana Arceo by six seconds.

Britain's Myles Pillage and Jessica Varley placed third, having climbed from eighth at the halfway stage of the laser run.

Turkey finished with 1,347 points, followed by Mexico on 1,341 and Britain on 1,317.

Guatemala's Paula Sophia Valencia Franco and Andres Fernandez in fourth narrowly missed out on a medal, notching 1,314.

Özyüksel said afterwards it was "unforgettable for us to get our first gold medal in Ankara".

UIPM President Klaus Schormann praised organisers, insisting "we have huge respect for them" following the catastrophic earthquake that struck southern and central Turkey and neighbouring Syria in February.

Modern pentathlon remains at risk of losing its Olympic berth from Los Angeles 2028, but the UIPM hopes the controversial move to replace riding with obstacle can appeal to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Schormann said the UIPM Under-19 World Championships in the Turkish city of Istanbul in July would be a "very big opportunity for us to show the IOC and the international sports movement how we will combine the disciplines to provide a new and very exciting modern pentathlon format".

The long-serving German official also claimed "we are seeing countries creating new federations, which is a clear sign that we made the right decision for the benefit of the whole Olympic Movement".

Ankara is also due to host the UIPM Pentathlon World Cup Final from May 31 to June 4, with stops planned in Hungary's capital Budapest and Bulgaria's capital Sofia before then.