Try your hand at a sport that requires endurance, agility, coordination, speed and precision! Modern Pentathlon is an Olympic sport which includes Pistol Shooting, Epee Fencing, Swimming, Equestrian Show Jumping and Cross Country Running. Sign up today!
Canadian Modern Pentathlon Association: www.pentathloncanada.ca
Nationals dates set: July 17 & 18, in Red Deer, Alberta!
Hi to all! Great news for Pentathlon on the mainland! A big effort is going on to rebuild Pentathlon in Maple Ridge. From having just 4 athletes last year in the club has restarted things this past January. After mothballing for the fall, regrouping and planning anew they have come back with more energy and most importantly, more training!!! They have inherited lots of older, but usable equipment in good shape from other clubs in the Fraser Valley and in Victoria. They also have free use of a classroom space for a permanent 10m air pistol range with eight stations and returns, and use of a gymnasium for fencing, with four strips. Already they have 16 youth members ranging from 7-18 and eight adult members! They have organized two separate groups (beginners & intermediate), which alternate fencing and shooting. Bob Noble, Erin Beckett and Bill MacDonald are coaching and have they have goals to see this club really grow over the next year. MRMPA meets Thursday evenings, 7pm-9pm in East Maple Ridge at a school on the corner of 272nd St and 100th Ave. Registration is $20 for the rest of the year. It includes use of basic fencing equipment and basic shooting equipment, coaching, building use, insurance. New times will be posted as the group develops and other times for the range and gym become available. All are welcome. Please, all pentathlon alumni are welcome to drop in at any time!! Keep your eyes and ears peeled for other athletes interested in competing - this is a great opportunity for training. For more info, email Paul.
See our 'Competitions' page for Test Rides & Horse Information + the Press Kit!
Tik Maynard and Monica Pinette have both been selected to be our Premier's Athletes for 2009!
In support of sport development and based on their previous year's competition results, the AAP has given Tik $750.00 and Monica $1250.00 in funding. A huge congratulations to these two athletes, 2008 was an amazing year for both of them!
Modern Pentathlon - An Overview
Modern Pentathlon is one of the oldest sports in the Modern Olympic Games.
The founder of the Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin introduced Modern Pentathlon in the 1912 Stockholm Games. The sport was to highlight the all round athlete who is competent in five sports. The events are air pistol shooting, swimming, running, fencing and riding. Although the sport involves both men and women, women were included in the Olympic level competition for the first time in 2000 in Sydney. Modern Pentathlon has provided the basic training and competitive experience for athletes who have gone on to specialize and compete in just one of our five sports. We have BC Olympians in the fence and the shoot. At the grass roots level in Canada, we organize events around the core sports of the shoot, run, swim and often the fence. We have age group competitions with scoring appropriate for the novice, junior and senior athletes. Youth and Masters can compete in the basic three event competitions successfully for years. Once over the age of 21 or if competing Nationally and Internationally in the traditional five event competitions, athletes compete using the international scoring formulas. Focusing on one or more of the events is just fine!An optimum score of 1000 pts is predetermined in each event except for the
ride which starts at 1200 points and deductions for refusals, knock downs, time penalties on the 12 jump(15 effort) course make up the final score. Points are awarded in a plus or minus fashion for scores achieved above and below the 1000 pt mark in the other four events. (For more information, go to 'Scoring & Rules') BC's schedule involves Junior Achievement events held on the last Saturday of October, November, January and February. We hold a Provincial Championship with optional ride in early April. This blends well with our other sports of summer swimming, Pony Club Tetrathlon events, school track and field and the international circuit where competitions start in earnest in the spring and finish with the World Championships in late summer.A Bit of History
The sport of Modem Pentathlon goes back to the year 708
B.C., when, at the 18th Olympic Games in the small town of Olympia in Southern
Greece, the original sports were running, broadjumping, javelin throwing, discus
throwing and wrestling. The Pentathlon represented the climax of the Games: the
winner received the title of' 'Victor Ludorum' and had to proclaim a poem about
his victory to the spectators. Admiration for the ancient Pentathlon was fully
shared by the founder of the modem Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
He persuaded the Olympic Committee to introduce Modem Pentathlon at the
5th Olympic Games of the modem era in Stockholm, Sweden in 1912.
It was his belief that this event, above all others, "tested an
athlete's moral qualities as much as their physical resources and skills,
producing thereby the ideal, complete athlete."
The choice of the five diverse and unrelated sports that make up the Modem Pentathlon arose out of a romantic vision of the wild adventures of a liaison officer whose horse is brought down in enemy territory. He defends himself with his pistol and sword, swims across a raging river and finally delivers the message on foot. Not surprisingly, it was the military who most enthusiastically adopted this new sport with its inherent demands of courage, coordination, physical fitness, self-discipline and flexibility in ever-changing circumstances. A young American Lieutenant, later to be the famous 2nd World War General George S. Patton, was to finish fifth in the first Olympic Modem Pentathlon competition and, for many years, the Modem Pentathlon was used as part of the final examinations at a number of European military academies. Today, both men and women, competing separately, complete all five events of the Modem pentathlon in one day. A points system for each event is based on a standard performance earning 1,000 points. The winner is the Pentathlete who has accumulated the most points after the five events and crosses the finish line first.
"The most perfect sportsmen, therefore, are the Pentathletes because in their bodies strength and speed are combined in beautiful harmony." Aristotle.
Contact Information
- British Columbia Modern Pentathlon Association
- General Information:
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