Modern pentathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Modern pentathlon competitions at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London are scheduled to be held on Saturday 11 August and Sunday 12 August 2012. The men's and women's events will each involve 36 athletes.^[1] Venues for the events will be the Handball Arena, for fencing, the Aquatics Centre in Olympic Park for swimming and Greenwich Park, for the riding and combined running and shooting discipline.^[2]

Format

Modern pentathlon contains five events; pistol shooting, épée fencing, 200 m freestyle swimming, show jumping, and a 3 km cross-country run.^[3] These will be the first Olympic Games in which the running and shooting events are combined; athletes face three rounds of shooting each followed by a 1 km run. Each of the three rounds of firing, athletes have to shoot five targets, loading the gun after each shot; they may then resume running. Misses are not penalised, but exceeding a maximum total time of 70 seconds will result in a penalty.^[3]

There had been plans to replace the use of pistols with laser guns after a successful trial at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore. The use of laser guns would have reduced the cost of the shooting section by approximately two-thirds and opened up new venues for the sport because of the increased levels of safety.^[4] These plans were dropped following a vote of the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM), the sport's world governing body.^[5][6]

Qualification

For each gender 36 athletes will qualify for the Games, a maximum of two athletes per gender may qualify from any nation. Qualification methods are the same for both the men's and women's events.^[7]

Host nation Great Britain are awarded one qualifying place automatically and two invitational positions will be allocated by the UPIM once the rest of the qualifiers are decided.^[7]

The first allocation of places to athletes based on competition results will occur between January and August 2011. Five continental championships account for 19 places; one from Africa, four from the Pan-American, five from Asia, eight from Europe and one from Oceania. The winner of the 2011 World Cup Final, which will be held in London's Greenwich Park in July as the first official test event ahead of the Games will qualify. The top three placed athletes at 2011 World Championships in September, which were due to be held in Cairo, Egypt, but were moved to Moscow, Russia due to the 2011 Egyptian revolution, will also qualify.^[7][8]

In May 2012 the top three ranked athletes, who have not yet qualified by other means, at the World Championships in Rome, May 2012 will be allocated places. The final seven places will be awarded based on pentathlon's world rankings as of 1 June 2012.^[7]

Men

An NOC may enter up to 2 athletes in each event. The places in each event will be allocated as follows:

Event	Date	Location	Vacancies	Athletes qualified
Host nation			1
2011 UIPM World Cup Final	July 8-10, 2011	London	1	Robert Kasza
2011 Asian/Oceania Championships[9]	May 19-22, 2011	Chengdu	5	Hong Jin-woo Cao Zhongrong Jung Jin-hwa Shinichi Tomii Wang Guan
			1	Edward Fernen
African Championship[10]	July 22-24, 2011	Cairo	1	Yasser Henfy
European Championship[11]	July 28- August 1, 2011	Medway	8	Andrey Moiseev Serguei Karyakin Dmytro Kirpulyanskyy James Cooke Federico Giancamilli Steffen Gebhardt Pierpaolo Petroni Dzmitry Meliakh
2011 World Modern Pentathlon Championships	September 8-14, 2011	Moscow	3	Adam Marosi Thomas Daniel Pavel Iliashenko
2011 Pan American Games	October 15-16, 2011	Guadalajara	4	Oscar Soto Andrei Gheorghe Esteban Bustos Dennis Bowsher
2012 World Modern Pentathlon Championships	May 22-30, 2012	Rome	3
Pentathlon world ranking	June 1, 2012	-	7
Invitational places	-	-	2
TOTAL			36

Women

An NOC may enter up to 2 athletes in each event. The places in each event will be allocated as follows:

Event	Date	Location	Vacancies	Athletes qualified
Host nation			1
2011 UIPM World Cup Final	July 8-10, 2011	London	1	Lena Schöneborn
2011 Asian/Oceania Championships[9]	May 19-22, 2011	Chengdu	5	Chen Qian Miao Yihua Yang Soo-jin Shino Yamanaka Narumi Kurosu
			1	Chloe Esposito
African Championship[10]	July 22-24, 2011	Cairo	1	Aya Medany
European Championship	July 28- August 1, 2011	Medway	8	Adrienn Toth Victoria Tereshuk Amelie Caze Laura Asadauskaite Elena Rublevska Sarolta Kovacs Freyja Prentice Ekaterina Khuraskina
2011 World Modern Pentathlon Championships	September 8-14, 2011	Moscow	3	Evdokia Gretchichnikova Elodie Clouvel Yane Marques
2011 Pan American Games	October 15-16, 2011	Guadalajara	4	Margaux Isaksen Tamara Vega Melanie McCann Pamela Zapata
2012 World Modern Pentathlon Championships	May 22-30, 2012	Rome	3
Pentathlon world ranking	June 1, 2012	-	7
Invitational places	-	-	2
TOTAL			36

References

1. ^ "Modern Pentathlon". London 2012 website. http://www.london2012.com/games/olympic-sports/modern-pentathlon.php. Retrieved 5 May 2011. 
2. ^ "London 2012 Olympics: modern pentathlon guide". The Telegraph. 14 February 2011. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/7905237/London-2012-Olympics-modern-pentathlon-guide.html. Retrieved 5 May 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Branch, John (26 November 2008). "Modern Pentathlon Gets a Little Less Penta". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/sports/olympics/27pentathlon.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=%22John%20Branch%22&st=cse. Retrieved 5 May 2011. 
4. ^ "LONDON 2012: Olympic modern pentathlon to feature laser guns". morethanthegames.com. 23 August 2010. http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/london-2012/2312228-london-2012-olympic-modern-pentathlon-feature-laser-guns. Retrieved 5 May 2011. 
5. ^ Gilmour, Rod (7 November 2010). "London 2012 Olympics: laser guns dropped as modern pentathlon rules for air pistol". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/8115661/London-2012-Olympics-laser-guns-dropped-as-modern-pentathlon-rules-for-air-pistol.html. Retrieved 5 May 2011. 
6. ^ "Pentathlon drops plan to swap pistols for laser guns". BBC Sport. 7 November 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/modern_pentathlon/9164372.stm. Retrieved 5 May 2011. 
7. ^ ^{a b c d} "London 2012 Olympics qualifying: Modern Pentathlon". BBC Sport. 6 January 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/modern_pentathlon/9341843.stm. Retrieved 5 May 2011. 
8. ^ Pound, Matthew (25 March 2011). "UIPM Awards 2011 Senior World Championships to Moscow". Union International de Pentathlon Moderne. http://www.pentathlon.org/media-centre/latest-news/item/745-uipm-awards-2011-senior-world-championships-to-moscow. Retrieved 5 May 2011. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "12 Athletes Qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games". Union International de Pentathlon Moderne. http://pentathlon.org/component/k2/item/870-12-athletes-qualify-for-the-2012-olympic-games. Retrieved 23 May 2011. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "MEDANY AND HEFNY HAVE BOOKED THEIR TICKETS TO LONDON 2012". Union International de Pentathlon Moderne. http://pentathlon.org/component/k2/item/998-medany-and-hefny-have-booked-their-tickets-to-london-2012. Retrieved 24 July 2011. 
11. ^ "MOISEEV CROWNED EUROPEAN CHAMPION". Union International de Pentathlon Moderne. http://pentathlon.org/component/k2/item/1024-moiseev-crowned-european-champion. Retrieved 30 July 2011. 

External links

• Qualification system