Intro to: Modern Pentathlon – #Rio2016

 

The Olympics brings our attention to many sports we’ve probably never heard of, and yet as spectators we still engage in these sports even if we have no clue what is going.

The Modern Pentathlon is one of those sports, and The Sports Lowdown is going to give you the lowdown on Modern Pentathlon.

History

Many may wonder why it’s called the Modern Pentathlon, since some of the events are far from “modern”. Well, when the event was created in 1912 it was Modern, especially compared to the original pentathlon of the ancient Olympic Games, which were modelled after the skills soldiers held at the time. It was decided that the Modern Pentathlon would replicate situations a 19th century soldier would experience.

The Modern Pentathlon consists of five events: Fencing, Swimming, Riding (show jumping), shooting and running.

Fencing

Fencing is the only event that the competitors are directly against each other. Playing in a round-robin format, the competitors use an Épée – the longest and heaviest sword used in fencing. Each match lasts one minute, however the match ends when a competitor scores a direct hit. If neither scores by the end of the minute, they both lose.

Swimming

This event is the easiest to understand. The athletes compete in a 200m freestyle race. Simple.

Riding (Show Jumping)

Unlike the athletes competing in the Equestrian events, Modern Pentathlon athletes are partnered with their horses 20 minutes before the start of the event.

The riders then will jump over a course with 12 jumps, the usual penalties apply if they knock down a jump, the horse refuses to jump or the exceed the time limit.

Running and Shooting

The combining of the running and shooting events is only recent in the Modern Pentathlon, it was first done at the 2012 Olympics.

The points athletes have gathered from the previous events are added together. The athlete with the most points will start first; the rest start at different intervals of time depending on their points.

Athletes will run a total of 3200m – four laps of 800m. These laps also hold shooting stops, where the athlete shoots a pistol – a laser one – at a target 10m away. Their aim is to hit five targets before the 50 seconds expires to continue their run. If they do not hit all five by the end of the 50 seconds they will receive a penalty.

A simple end to a rather unique event: the first athlete to cross the finish line wins gold.