Chloe Esposito made history at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Friday, winning Australia's first Olympic gold medal in modern pentathlon at Deodoro Stadium.

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Esposito, 24, crossed the combined shooting/running finishing line first after starting 38 seconds behind leader Oktawia Nowacka, setting an Olympic record of 1372 points.

"I know combined is my strongest event," Esposito said. "I just didn't want to think about getting a medal, and I just thought 'I am good at this event, I enjoy it the most, I'm gonna have fun with it'. 

Elodie Clouvel, 27, who was the second-best swimmer of the day, picked up the silver and Nowacka held off China's Chen Qian by just six seconds to secure bronze. "My shooting is not so good, so I was just thinking 'run fast, run fast'," Clouvel said.

The result meant that since women's modern pentathlon was introduced at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, all 15 medals have been won by different participants.

Chloe Esposito (Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Defending champion Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania was out of contention following an elimination in the show jumping, although she did manage to set an Olympic record in the combined shooting/running with a time of 12 minutes 1.01 seconds.

Rio 2016 modern pentathlon schedule and results

Gold-medallist at the Beijing 2008 Games, Germany's Lena Schoneborn, who came into the competition as one of the favourites, had no luck either in the show jumping after her horse refused to jump. She finished 32nd.