Modern Pentathlon
Published on: 17th August 2011
Introduction
The Olympic sport of Modern Pentathlon comprises the contemporary sports of pistol shooting, fencing, swimming, horse riding and running. The sport was introduced at the 1912 Olympics by the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin, and embraced the spirit of the Pentathlon of the ancient Greek Games, where the five sports were running, jumping, javelin, discus and wrestling.
The choice of the five diverse and unrelated sports that make up the Modern Pentathlon arose out of the romantic, tough adventures of a liaison officer whose horse was brought down in enemy territory. Having defended himself with his pistol and sword, he swims across a raging river and delivers the message on foot.
Since the sport was created it has undergone many changes in format. Originally taking place over 5 days the sport changed to a one day format for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Women competed in the Olympics for the first time at Sydney in 2000. In 2008 the interational federation for Modern Pentathlon voted for the shooting and running to be combined and in 2010 the shooting format was changed from air pistols to laser shooting.
Disciplines - Summary
This information relates to distances and target times for senior events. Younger athletes compete at shorter distances with target times and scores adjusted accordingly. Full details can be found in the rules
Fencing: Athletes fence all other competitors once using electric epees. Bouts are fenced for one hit and last a maximum of one minute. Double hits are annulled. If neither fencer has scored a hit within the time limit, a double defeat will be recorded.
Swimming: A 200m freestyle swim, where the athletes are seeded in heats according their personal best times. A time of 2 minutes 30 seconds equates to 1000 pentathlon points.
Riding: Athletes ride unfamiliar horses over a series of 12 show-jumping obstacles. The leading athlete after the previous disciplines draws their horse by lot. On the basis of this draw, the other horses (which have been previously numbered) are allocated to the other competitors. The athletes have just 20 minutes in the warm-up arena over five practice jumps before coming out to compete.
Combined event (running and shooting): The climax to the competition. The combined event begins with a handicapped start, calculated on the basis of the results after the previous events. It is a two discipline event, where athletes run a total distance of 3000m. The run is interspersed by shooting three sets of 5 electronic targets. Only after having hit 5 targets with an unlimited number of shots OR after a time of 1 minute 10 seconds can the competitor start from the firing point to perform each running leg of 1000m. The first person to cross the line is the winner. A time of 12 minutes 30 seconds equates to 2000 pentathlon points.
Yorkshire Regional Coordinator and Development Officer
Mrs Ann Marshall
Mob: 07967 918110
Email: yorkspentathlon@btinternet.com
Assistant Development Officer
Mr Liam O'Neil
Mob: 07891 329341
Email: oneil_87@hotmail.com
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