Medway realises World Cup ambitions
|
Medway is proud to be hosting the Modern Pentathlon World Cup in 2010. The event will see 200 of the world's leading athletes competing at Medway Park, putting Medway on the map and inspiring a new generation of potential modern pentathletes in Medway to take up this exciting sport. |
|
What is the modern pentathlon?
The modern pentathlon is a multi-sport event comprising five disciplines, introduced to the Olympics by the Games’ founder, Pierre de Coubertin. It is recognised as one of the most testing Olympic events.
It comprises:
swimming - a 200m indoor swim;
pistol shooting - using a 4.5mm calibre pistol, competitors have 20 shots to fire at a target 10m away;
fencing - athletes fence every other competitor with epee swords;
riding - athletes ride unfamiliar horses over show-jumping obstacles on a track between 350 and 450m in length;
running - a 3,000m run with a handicapped start, taking into account athletes' scores coming into the final event.
|
|
It was first staged as a modern Olympic event at the fifth Olympiad in Stockholm in 1912. It was de Coubertin's belief that it would be the event that, above all others, "tested a man's moral qualities as much as his physical resources and skills, producing thereby the ideal, complete athlete". |
The choice of the five diverse and unrelated sports arose out of the romantic, tough adventures of a liaison officer whose horse was brought down in enemy territory. Having defended himself with his pistol and sword, he swam across a raging river and delivered the message by foot.
About the World Cup
The World Cup is an annual series of international competitions to find the year’s leading modern pentathlete, attracting the cream of the sport’s competitors from around the globe.
The 2010 World Cup is an intrinsic part of the preparation of Pentathlon GB’s elite athletes and officials for 2012.
The four-day competition in 2010 will be held at Medway Park, on the site of the Black Lion Leisure Centre in Gillingham, which is currently undergoing an £11m transformation into a regional centre of sporting excellence.
Britain's track record and Medway's rising star
Great Britain has twice won Olympic gold in the sport of modern pentathlon.
|
In 1976, the men's team of Jeremy Fox, Adrian Parker, Robert Nightingale and Andrew Archibald won team gold at the Montreal Games. In 2000, at the Sydney Games, Stephanie Cook won gold in the individual women's event while Kate Allenby won bronze. In 2004, Kent's Georgina Harland went on to win Olympic bronze at Athens. |
|
The men's team of Richard Phelps, Graham Brookhouse and Dominc Mahony also won team bronze at Seoul in 1988, while the first British medallist was Frederick Barton, who won a bronze in Paris in 1924.
Medway can also boast a current champion modern pentathlete. James Myatt from High Halstow - a member of the Medway Elite Athlete Support Programme - is current GB under-18 champion and is tipped as one of the sport’s future stars at senior level.
To learn more about the sport of Modern Pentathlon, visit the Pentathlon GB website www.mpagb.org.uk.