Modern Pentathlon - Environment
Modern pentathlon is a sport in which five sports are played in a sequential manner. All the sports have different playing environment which have been discussed in this chapter.
Environment for Fencing
For the epee fencing, the event takes place in a piste or fencing court. Based on pentathlon rules, the piste is 14 metres in length and 1.5 - 2 metres in width. The last 2 metres from each side is hash marked in order to warn the players against backing off the end of the strip.
Different types of pistes are there based on the materials used, which are aluminium piste, rubber piste, metallic piste etc. These pistes are grounded to the scoring box in order to make sure that no score is provided when the player touches the ground using his/her epee.
Environment for Swimming
Unlike triathlon, where the swimming event takes place in open water, in modern pentathlon, a swimming pool of 200m length is used for the swimming competition. Here the players have to swim in a pool consisting of markers. These pools have starting blocks at each side which are equipped with Automatic Officiating Equipment.
Each lane of the pool is around 2.5 metres. At each side, touching pad sensors are there to calculate the exact duration as well as to ensure that the players are swimming in their own relay. The pools must have a minimum depth of 2metres.
Environment for Show Jumping
For the show jumping, a course is used, which is filled with show obstacles including verticals, spreads, and double and triple combinations with many turns and directions along the path. During the course, the player has to overcome around 15 jumps with 12 obstacles including at least one double jump and one triple jump.
Environment for Shooting and Cross Country Running
The race track used for the combined event is around 3200meteres long with four shooting spots at each 800 metres. Each of those shooting spots consists of the targets for each player, which is 10 m apart from the shooting line. The players have to run 800 metres and then shoot the target to finish one of the four cycles of the combined event.
