British Columbia Modern Pentathlon Association

The Ultimate Sport - The Ultimate Athlete

Spectator Guide

Developed by CAMPA for the 1999 Pan American Games

If you have the opportunity to watch Modem Pentathlon, you will be treated to an exciting day. These are some of the world's most versatile athletes and, by the end, when you have followed them from venue to venue and watched as they move from one phase to another, you will be in awe of their stamina and ability.  The Spectator's Guide will lead you step-by-step through the competition.

"Pentathlon" - what is that?  It comes from the Greek word for 5, so it means 5 sports combined into one athletic event. And these are not just any sports: they call for a unique combination of strength and skill.  Pistol-shooting, fencing. swimming, show-jumping and running - all in one day! 5 sports - how do they score that?  How do you know who's won?  In theory, it's quite simple: the athlete gets a certain number of Pentathlon points for performance in each of the sports. These points are added up at the end, and the winner is the one with the most points.  For the finer details of how the points are calculated for each sport, keep reading......

Who does this?  Modem Pentathlon is open to men and women, although they do not compete against each other.  In the 2000 Olympics, women competed in Modem Pentathlon for the first time.

What do they have to do?  Well, they have to get up very early in order to be ready, with their air pistols, at 7:00 a.m. SHOOTING is a timed competition, which means that they are given 40 seconds to fire a shot at a target competition, which is only 155 mm in diameter and is 10 meters away from them.  They fire 20 shots, each time onto a new target. If they hit the centre of the target, they score 10 and the further away from the centre of the target that their shot lands, the lower their score. Watch the technique of the different athletes- Each one has his or her own way of preparing for the event, dealing with nerves and keeping calm.  They all have 40 seconds in which to shoot but some will shoot early and some will wait until almost the last moment.  If they shoot well enough to score 172 out of the maximum of 200, they score 1,000 Pentathlon points.  Every target point above or below 172 is worth plus or minus 12 Pentathlon points, so, if they shoot a score of 171 they get 988 Pentathlon points but if they shoot 173, they get 1012 points.  

Still with me? What comes next?  FENCING.  Each athlete fences every other athlete and the weapon they use is an epee. This is a sword which has a long and distinguished history: in the old days when men fought duels, they fought with epees. The chief difference between those weapons and the epee being used today is that the modem epee has an electronic tip which registers each time the athlete hits his or her opponent, causing a light to go on. You will see that there is a light on each end of the table where the judge sits.  Don't worry about the red and the green colours: those are not important.  The important part: which light goes on.  When one of those lights goes on, it is the competitor opposite to the light - not the one beside it - who has won the bout. If both lights come on, it means that each athlete has hit the other at exactly the same moment; no one scores and the bout continues. The target is the whole of the opponent's body, from the mask on the head to the shoes on the feet: any touch which lands on any part of the body, clothing or equipment counts as a hit.  Watch the speed of the athletes' movements, the sudden flash of an epee, the rapid foot-work- remember that fencing is a little like chess in having a strong psycohological element- the athlete is setting up his or her opponent for the moment when a hit can be made.  If an athlete wins 70% of his or her bouts, that brings a Pentathlon score of 1,000 points.  The value of each hit above and below this percentage is flexible and depends on the number of athletes competing, so we won't worry about it for now.

On to SWIMMING. The athletes are racing against the clock - the fastest time gets the most points.  Men and women compete separately over 200m.  They are seeded in heats according to their personal best time. A swim time of 2 minutes 30 seconds for men and 2 minutes 40 seconds for women earns 1,000 Pentathlon points.  Every 1/10 of a second under of over this time is equal to plus or minus one point ( 10 points per full second).  This means that if a woman takes 2 minutes 39 seconds to swim the course, she will earn 1010 Pentathlon points, and if a man takes 2 minutes 31 seconds to swim the course, he will earn 990 Pentathlon points.

So you get the idea about the points: for each event points are calculated on a base score of 1,000 Pentathlon points with additions or subtractions from this figure according to a formula based on how well the athlete does.  Now, after three events we will have all the athletes ranked according to the number of Pentathlon points earned.  This will become particularly important for the Riding and Running sections of the event since we now start to position the athletes for competition according to their place on the list of results.

This happens first in RIDING.  The horses are supplied by the organizers. The pentathletes have never ridden the horses before.  Horses and riders line up separately in front of the judges, and the man who is currently in first place will be called up to draw, out of a bowl, the number of the horse he will ride.  As each horse will be ridden twice, the first-place athlete and the last-place athlete will ride the same horse.  The number will be announced on the loud-speaker, and the horse corresponding to that number will be led out and trotted past the judges and the two athletes who will ride it.  Then the woman who is in first place will be called up to draw a number for the horse to be ridden by herself and the woman who is currently in last place. The procedure will be followed until all men and all women have drawn a horse.

The athletes then have 20 minutes during which they can ride their horse, get to know it and take 5 practice jumps on it. Watch the warm-up ring - there can be some interesting moments as athletes and horses get to know one another. Remember that these are athletes who have already competed in two other skill sports today: shooting and fencing, and in one strength sport: swimming.  Think about how versatile, both mentally and physically, these athletes have to be. Then the athlete enters the ring; a bell rings to signal that it is time to start and, going at a speed of 350 m per minute (21 km per hour), the athlete must take the horse over a course between 350 to 450 m in length; there are 12 obstacles to be jumped, including one double and one triple combination.  Listen to the announcer to hear the exact time allowed for the course.  It will be between 1 minute and 1 minute 20 seconds, depending on the exact length of the course. How is it scored?  In this event, competitors start with a fixed amount - 1100 Pentathlon points - and lose points for knockdowns, disobedience and time penalties.  If they take longer than twice the time allowed to negotiate the course, they will receive a score of zero points.  This is the one event where you can't gain points - you can only lose!

After the riding, there will be quick calculations to see who is the new leader.  This is important: the leading competitor is the first athlete to leave in the RUNNING phase of the competition.  He or she is chased by all the other competitors and whoever passes and is in the lead at the end of the competition is the OVERALL WINNER! Men and women run separately over a course which is 3,000m in in length. Competitors are sent off at intervals which correspond in seconds to the difference in Pentathlon points between themselves and the leading athlete. A time of 10 minutes for men and 11 minutes 20 seconds for women earns 1,000 Pentathlon points.  For every half-second above or below this standard the athlete will gain or lose 2 points (4 points per full second). Can you explain it a bit more clearly? Let's try: At the start of the run, you will see the athletes lined up at varying intervals in 4 lanes. This is called a "handicap start" and it works as follows: The athlete who is leading the competition after 4 events starts first. The other athletes follow in their rank order; they have the "handicap" of starting a certain number of seconds behind the leader. The number of seconds behind the leader that each one starts is determined by the difference in the number of Pentathlon points between the athlete and the leader. For instance, if athlete #2 is 80 Pentathlon points behind the leader, he or she will start 20 seconds behind the leader. So, because the athletes start the running phase of the competition with a time/points handicap, the athlete who comes in first has overcome that handicap and is the overall winner of the competition.

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Copyright © 2001 British Columbia Modern Pentathlon Association
Last modified: September 19, 2004