Modern Pentathlon - 100 years at the Olympics

One hundred years ago in the 1912 Stockholm games spectators could for the first time view this sport that challenges the athletes to compete in five events in one day. The five events were chosen to represent the trials a french messenger went through in order to deliver his message: he had to ride, shoot, fence, run and swim. Women did not compete in this event before the 2000 Sydney games.

In London 2012 the athletes will start their event in the early morning with a fencing competition in a round robin style meeting all athletes once. The athlete that first lands a hit on their opponent wins the match and the matches last one minute and if no-one lands a hit both competitors lose. If an athlete wins 70 percent of his/her matches he/she gains 1000 points, every win or loss over or under 70 percent counts as +- 24 points. Throughout the first three events the athletes gather points that in the last two events turn into a time handicap.

When the fencing is finished the athletes are transported to the olympic swimming pool where they swim a 200m freestyle race in pre determined heats based on previous results in the year. A time of 2:30 for the swim gives the athlete 1000 points with +- four points for every 0.33 seconds they are under or over that time.

The riders then go to the show jumping arena where they will compete in a 400m course on a horse they have never ridden on before. Athletes start off with 1200 points each and 20 points are taken off for every jump they knock down, 40 points for refusal to jump or loss of control of the horse and 60 points for falling of the horse. There is also an extra four points taken off for every second they are over the alloted time. The interesting part is that if an athlete takes more than twice the time allotted they are out of the event.

The last event is a combined event which composes of a 3km run and shooting with a pistol. The athletes start in time intervals depending on their points from their previous events. The person with the most points start fiirst and four points equals a second advantage . The athletes run straight to the shooting range where they have to hit five targets in 70 seconds followed by a 1km run three times over and the first person to cross the finish line wins.

This sport requires an all-round set off skills to build up points for the final event, but a person who is strong in the final event can come up from way behind to take the gold medal.

In the womens event the big hope is that home favourite Mahiri Spence from the UK can win the same way she recently did in the world championships.

For the men the one to look out for is also a home favourite, Jamie Cook from the UK was the first athlete to qualify from GB and went on to win the World Junior Championship in Argentina. However he will face stiff competition from the big star of the sport Andrey Moiseyev who is looking for his third consecutive win in as many Olympics. I think these two will be on the podium or close to it.

I only watch this event during the Olympics, but I have to admit it is a thrilling sport and if you don't spend all day watching try to get a look at the finals which are always unpredictable.