Olympics-France's Caze defends modern pentathlon world title

BUDAPEST, May 31 (Reuters) - France's Amelie Caze defended her modern pentathlon world title on Saturday after holding off world rankings leader Aya Medany of Egypt and Britain's Katie Livingston.

Caze built up a comfortable lead throughout the day on the back of solid performances in all disciplines, especially in fencing and headed into the last event, the three km cross country race, with the gold almost assured. "I needed to have a large time (lead) before the running event because it's not my best event," Caze said.

When asked what her back-to-back world championship gold medals meant for her chances in Beijing, she said: "I have two golds and I need a third... I hope, I wish (for it) very hard.

Medany, who moved up slowly through the standings after a poor score in shooting, the day's first event, charged hard in the run and out-duelled Livingston for second place.

"I tried to hold on to her for as long as I could," Livingston said. "We helped each other move into medal positions as we started the run in fourth and fifth."

Saturday's event was the last Olympic qualifying opportunity for pentathletes with the top three gaining automatic berths to compete in Beijing.

However, as all three had already qualified, the International Modern Pentathlon Association will fill the vacant Olympic spots from the world rakings list.

In the team competition, Poland took first ahead of Britain and Hungary.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi, editing by Clare Lovell)