Germany defended their women's mixed relay crown ©Twitter

Lena Schöneborn and Annika Schleu successfully defended their women's relay crown at the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) World Championships in Cairo today. 

The German team, who won last year's event in Moscow, were in fourth position after the fencing and swimming sections.

But a solid ride followed by a superb run-shoot enabled them to power up the leaderboard.

It followed their gold medal at the European Championships earlier this season.

The duo eventually finished on 1,276 points to comfortably beat home hopes Mariam Amer and Sondos Aboubakr.

The Egyptian pair produced the best riding performance to move up the leaderboard before finishing 33 seconds behind after the run-shoot for a total score of 1,243.

Shino Yamanaka and Rena Shimazu of Japan sealed third place with 1,238 points.

Qualifying for the men and women's individual events will be held tomorrow and Friday (August 25) with the respective finals scheduled to take place on Saturday and Sunday (August 26 and 27).

A mixed relay will bring the curtain down on the Championships on August 28.