In-form Australian modern pentathlete Chloe Esposito has put a disappointing fencing round behind her to fly up the rankings at the World Cup Final in Chengdu, China and finish eighth.

The top-36 athletes from the four 2012 World Cup events gathered for the Final and Esposito, Australia's only representative, landed the night before the competition began after missing a flight connection to China.

In the opening fencing discipline she was ranked 36th with just 10 wins.

But the Aussie whose rapid improvement and determination is taking the modern pentathlon world by storm was ready to blitz the next four events.

Esposito's stellar swimming ability took her to a career-high bronze medal at the Rio World Cup in March and eighth at her debut World Championship earlier this month. In China she again delivered with the swim, taking first place and 1192 points to rocket her into 25th overall.

Her 200m freestyle time of 2:14.21 was four seconds outside her personal best, however it was still over a second faster than Yane Marques (BRA) and three seconds faster than Natalie Dianova (CZE).

“I still feel a bit jetlagged which results in the slow time, but I am still very happy to win the swim,” Esposito said after the swim.

“I now need to focus on the ride and hopefully I can move up more places.”

An eighth place in the riding saw her continue to creep up the rankings and an almighty second place in the combined event saw her add a crucial 2160 points to her overall tally.

Esposito finished an impressive eighth overall with Lithuania's Laura Asadauskaite taking gold and the world number one ranking.

Great Britain's Heather Fell took silver and Brazil's Yane Marques won bronze.

The modern pentathlon competition in London will be held at three different venues in one thrilling day. The sport celebrates 100 years on the Olympic program. Learn more here >>>

Taya Conomos
AOC