Rancho Mirage - Modern Pentathlon World Cup 2011 season begins
After twelve years, the Modern Pentathlon World Cup 2011 has begun on the American soil yesterday on February 23 in Rancho Mirage, California.
The inaugural ceremony of the event was charmed by young spectacular Americans at the Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa. It would be the first time that instead of pellet shooting the environmentally-friendly laser shooting will be introduced.
The laser shooting had a successful test during the Youth Olympic Games 2010 and is planned now to be used at all UIPM (Union International de Pentathlon Moderne) international competitions as well as the 2012 London Olympics.
The UIPM President Dr. h.c. Klaus Schormann said, “This is a historical moment that this competition will be organised with the new laser technology that is the future of our sport. I am also very excited that we are back in the USA, who will now be a partner
for major highlight competitions in the future.”
“The entire Pentathlon community is very excited about being back here in the USA. We are also very excited about the introduction of the new laser shooting technology which will open up the sport to the youth and the Olympians of tomorrow.”
This event shall bring in 180 athletes from 30 various countries to compete across the five disciplines namely epee fencing, swimming, equestrian, show jumping and a combined running and shooting event.
These five disciplines (including epee fencing) shall be carried out in four competitions that are scheduled as below:
February 24 Women's Qualification Competition
February 25 Men's Qualification Competition
February 26 Women's Individual Finals
February 27 Men's Individual Finals
This means that the World Cup # 1 gets started tomorrow with Women’s qualification event. This is the first week for heading towards the World Cup finals that is to take place on July 9-10 in London.
The epee fencing event is to be held at the Xavier College Preparatory High School Gym, Palm Desert. The athletes were provided fencing training from February 21 at Palm Desert by Leslie Taft of College of the Desert.
There are few Modern Pentathlon rules to fencing in which the athlete is required to use the blade epee to compete against each competitor once in a bout and the one who manages a hit within the one minute time, scores a win. The winner receive points whereas
same points are deducted on the losing end and if there is a draw then both the athletes are penalized for one-hit each. In epee, the complete body is the target area for the fencers to touch a score. According to the rules, if a fencer manages to win a total
of 70 percent of his/her played bouts; he or she will be awarded with 1,000 points.
The UIPM will broadcast the event’s finals on the Pentathlon TV and website on Saturday and Sunday. This broadcasting will cater only the highlights of the epee fencing event.
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