Péter Kelemen

Péter Kelemen

Personal information
Born	(1946-09-02) 2 September 1946 Rákoscsaba, Hungary
Residence	Békéscsaba, Budapest, Hungary
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	71 kg (157 lb)
Sport
Sport	Modern pentathlon
Club	Újpesti Dózsa SC, Budapest
Medal record Representing  Hungary World championships 1969 Budapest Team 1970 Warendorf Individual 1970 Warendorf Team 1971 San Antonio Team 1973 London Team Junior World championships 1966 Bratislava Individual 1966 Bratislava Team 1967 Aldershot Individual National championships 1968 Budapest Individual 1968 Budapest Team 1969 Budapest Individual 1969 Budapest Team 1971 Budapest Team 1972 Budapest Team 1973 Budapest Team 1974 Budapest Team 1975 Budapest Team 1976 Budapest Team 1977 Budapest Team

Péter Kelemen (born 2 September 1946) is a retired Hungarian modern pentathlete.

He started his career in 1958 as a swimmer in the BVSC sport club, then he switched to Modern Pentathlon following the advice of his PE teacher in 1963 at the Újpesti Dózsa SC. His first major success winning gold medal in 1966 at the Junior World Championship both team and individual events. After being 9th in 1969 at the World Championship in the following year he accomplished to win the World Championships in Warendorf Germany by defeating the legendary pentathlete and his compatriot András Balczó by only 3 points after 5 events and around 5000 points total.

Péter Kelemen was the first Pentathlete who accomplished to win both Junior and Adult World Championship in Individual event.^[1]
He was selected as a back-up team member at 1972 Olympics in Munich. He was excluded from the Modern Pentathlon Olympic team due to a conflict between the Hungarian Modern Pentathlon Association and his coach András Nyulászi.

Kelemen was elected Hungarian Sportsman of the Year 1970, while the pentathlon team was also chosen as the Hungarian Team of the Year.

He retired form the active sport in 1977 and started coaching. He became a trainer of the Újpesti Dózsa and BVSC Modern Pentathlon teams as a fencing trainer. In 1988 he was invited to Seoul and helped the South Korean Modern Pentathlon team as a fencing and compound coach. From 1981 he was the director of the Újpesti Dózsa shooting center and the trainer of the MAFC woman's Modern Pentathlon team member Csilla Füri. Also participated in the National Modern Pentathlon Association as a director of the Technical board. From 2001 worked as a trainer of the BHSE's Modern Pentathlon Team until 2007 when he retired.

He is considered one of the most successful member in the line of the Hungarian modern pentathletes by surprisingly defeat the multiple World Champion and fellow countryman András Balczó in the 1970s World Championship giving a bitter sweet recognition about his name to the Hungarian media and public which assuredly expected another world title from Balczó.
His first wife Jutka Békei is a former kayak athlete. He has two sons Szabolcs (born 14 December 1971) and Zoltan (born 13 October 1977)

References