SOLIHULL’s Tudor Grange Leisure Centre will this weekend host the Under-17 European Pentathlon Championships and both competitors and spectators are being encouraged to attend.
Pentathlon GB will be staged the free event on Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday which will provide locals with a unique opportunity to watch potential future Olympians in action.
The format is a modern triathlon – a 200m freestyle swim followed by combined run/shoot – with the individual competitions taking place on Saturday, while the boys, girls and mixed relays taking place two days later.
A total of eight Great Britain athletes have been selected to compete in the prestigious event which sees participants accumulate points in Swimming before competing in the Combined run/shoot, where starting positions are determined by their performance in the swim.
A time of 10 minutes 30 seconds equates to 500 pentathlon points, with each second faster or slower than this time being worth a plus or minus score of one point.
As athletes are placed in the order in which they cross the finish line, ensuring that the first athlete home is the champion.
The Olympic sport of modern pentathlon involves fencing, swimming, show jumping, laser pistol shooting and running.
The sport was introduced at the 1912 Olympics by the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin, and embraced the spirit of the pentathlon of the ancient Greek Games, where the five sports were running, jumping, javelin, discus and wrestling.
Under 17 athletes do not compete in the full Modern Pentathlon, they compete in a three discipline event comprising swim and combined run/shoot.
