High humidity led to the obstacle track at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, becoming slippery, forcing a delay to the men’s event.

During the delay, the balance obstacle was removed from the track and mats that were proving slippery were covered.

The Ukrainian team reportedly had to delay its departure to the next day to enable it to make its plane.

In a statement athlete pressure group Pentathlon United told insidethegames: "The delay in the obstacle course racing was because of the conditions.

"This should not be happening at any World Championship, planning for this should have happened at test events so the athletes get the World Championships they deserve.

"This was the important moment that the sport had to show the world how they can host events.

"There was no room to get this stuff wrong, yet they had to delay the competition because it was slippery.

"Athletes are still getting upset their hands are getting torn. These tests are happening on children.

"Organisation, communications, marketing, leadership and running of the sport has always been the problem.

"This is why the sport is struggling in the Olympic Movement."

In response a UIPM spokesperson told insidethegames: "The UIPM 2023 U17 World Championships was a historic competition - the first time pentathletes at youth level have been able to compete in a full pentathlon at global level, thanks to the integration of obstacle which makes the sport more accessible to younger generations of athletes from more countries.

"Participating athletes from 26 countries enjoyed an unforgettable experience in Alexandria and you can see from the positive quotes published in UIPM’s daily reports that, at least anecdotally, athletes seem to have enjoyed the new format and the obstacle discipline.

"The late timing of the men’s final was designed to minimise the impact of the high temperatures in Alexandria.

"In the event, very high humidity led to the obstacle course becoming slippery, so competition officials took the decision to fast-track the swimming, allowing time to make the obstacle course safer.

"The change in scheduling was successful and the competition came to a conclusion without further incident."

There was home success in the women’s final, with Egypt's Farida Khalil taking victory with 1,338 points.

Khalil scored well in the fencing, before placing fifth in the obstacle.

She then recorded the best time in swimming of 2min 14.48sec, and despite trailing by 13 seconds coming into the concluding run and shoot, held her nerve to clinch victory.

The silver medal went to Germany’s Nadja Farmand with 1,323, with bronze going to Annachiara Allara of Italy on 1,316.

In the men’s final Mathis Issaka Idelarge of France took the win following a four-way sprint, with the field tightly-packed heading into the concluding laser run.

Starting the concluding discipline in fifth, Idelarge registered the second best run time of the day of 9min 01.70sec, as he moved to the head of the field, finishing on 1,445 points.

Bartosz Szmytke of Poland took second with 1,444 points, with bronze won by Tarek Sadek of Egypt on 1,443 points.

In the mixed relay, British duo Chloe Johnson and Sebastian Forrest took victory with 1,607 points, helped by an impressive haul in the fencing ranking round of 22 victories.

Silver went to Egyptian duo Khalil and Omar Amer with 1,569 points, with bronze going to Hungarian duo Linda Haraszin and Marcell Hugo Gyurka with 1,544 points.