Hungary's Zsuzsanna Voros won the gold medal in the women's modern pentathlon in Athens on Friday to add the Olympic title to her three world championships.

Voros, 27, cruised to victory in the concluding 3000 metre cross-country run 17 seconds clear of her nearest rival with a winning total of 5448 points.

Jelena Rublevska of Latvia finished second with 5380 points to take the silver medal while Georgina Harland of Britain collected the bronze after starting the final leg way back in 14th position.

Under the sport's rules, the runners set off at intervals depending on the number of points they accumulated over the first four disciplines.

Voros, world champion in 1999, 2003 and 2004, began the final leg with a 41-second advantage over the field and was so far in front at the end that she was able to stop and collect a Hungarian flag from a fan before jogging across the tape.

She did not win any of the five disciplines but was the most consistent, finishing third in shooting, fifth in fencing, fourth in swimming and ninth in show-jumping to lead by 164 points heading into the run.

China's Dong Leon won the shooting but Voros took the overall lead after the second stage by winning 19 of her 31 bouts in fencing.

She stretched her lead after the swim and then again after the show-jumping when she knocked over just two fences.

Britain's Kate Allenby, a bronze medallist at Sydney four years ago and runner-up at this year's world championships, was second heading into the riding but bowed out of contention when she knocked down seven fences and eventually finished eighth.

Dong also came unstuck during the show-jumping, falling off her mount and slipping out of the medal hunt.

Rublevska was the best fencer, winning 23 of her bouts, and the fourth fastest runner but lost ground to Voros in the other three disciplines.

Harland was third from the bottom after the pistol shooting and just 26th when the sword fighting finished, but flashed past 11 runners on the final leg to snatch the bronze after starting 91 seconds behind in 14th spot.