Open Hungarian Chps. and Brazilian Nationals

The Open Hungarian Championshisps was held in the city of Tata.The line-up was pretty good, with  top pentathletes from Great Britain, Lithuania, Italy, Egypt and Russia, besides the strong Hungarian squad.  Local pentathletes Leila Gyenesei and Adam Marosi  were the winners. Results at: http://www.cardsys.hu/versenyek/2010ob/index.htm

After the successful Pan American Championships, Brazilian modern pentathlon will have its National Championships this weekend in the same venue of the continental competition. See more at: http://www.pentatlomoderno2010.com.br/brasileiro.html. Teammates Priscila Oliveira and Larissa Lellys will fight for  the title and for the second position in the women's national ranking, while Yane Marques will rest and not take part of this event . In the men's field, a quite wide open competition will feature current champion Aloísio Sandes, veterans Daniel Santos and Wagner Romão, youngster Willian Muinhos and  also Luís Magno and Rafael Marzullo. Others competitors will try to impress and upset the favourites though, so we can expect a thrilling competition.
Wagner Romão and Priscila Oliveira were the winners. Full results: http://www.pentatlo.org.br/pdf/252.pdf

Asian Games (Guangzhou, China): Chinese pentathletes win 2 individual golds

Miao Yihua from China won the women's competition on Tuesday by crossing the finish line in first place and scoring 5240 points. Her teammate Wu Yanyan finished in second place after surpassing South Korean Yang Soo Jin, who collected the bronze medal. 2009 World Champion Qian Chen was only fifth, finishing behind her countrywoman Ye Zhang. Former Asian Games champion Lada Jienbalanova, from Kazakhstan, finished in 13th position (out of 16 participants) after not scoring points in riding. In the team competition, China won the gold, South Korea got the silver and Kazakhstan was bronze.

On Wednesday, Cao Zhongrong from China was the best pentathlete of the day as he finished in first position, having recorded 5768 points. South Koreans Lee Choon Huan and Kim In Hong finished in second and third, respectively, with 5704 and 5628 points, and led their country to claim the gold in team competition. China was silver and Japan was bronze.

sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_pentathlon_at_the_2010_Asian_Games
http://www.pentathlon.org/media-centre/latest-news/item/653-china%E2%80%99s-miao-takes-gold-in-guangzhou
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-11/24/c_13620778.htm

Pentathletes from the past: Rest in peace, Pavel Lednev

UIPM website brought today the sad news that modern pentathlon legend Pavel Lednev passed away, at the age of 67. Pavel Serafimovich Lednev (or Lednyov, in Russian Павел Серафимович Леднëв) settled two Olympic records during his successful career: the Russian was the pentathlete with most medals won (7) and the oldest pentathlete to win a medal (at the age of 37, in Moscow 1980 Games). After the years of Andras Balczó (HUN) dominance, it was Lednev the most successful pentathlete in the 70's and through his career Lednev faced not only Balczó, but also Janusz Peciak (POL), Björn Ferm (SWE), Daniele Masala (ITA) and his teammates Igor Novikov, Boris Onyschenko and Vladimir Zhmelev. 

In Olympic Games, Lednev collected in individual events one silver (Montréal 1976, finishing behind Janusz Peciak) and three bronze medals (Mexico 1968, Munich 1972 and Moscow 1980); in team events, he was part of the winner teams of Munich 1972 and Moscow 1980) and won the silver in Mexico 1968. The Soviet team was disqualified in 1976 Montréal Games when they were favourites. In World Championships, Lednev took the individual title four times, in three straight years (1973-1975) and in 1978. In 1977, again Janusz Peciak finished ahead of Lednev in World Championships and the Russian finished in second position. Still in World Championships, Lednev was twice part of the Soviet winner team (1972 and 1973) - also collected one silver and two bronzes in team competitions. 

Lednev, as a great pentathlete, was an all-around performer, being a good swimmer, rider and runner and a master at fencing and shooting. 

 image from: http://www.livesport.ru/others/2010/11/24/lednev/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Picture of Lednev and his family at: http://visualrian.com/images/item/81450

sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Lednyov

http://sports123.com/mpe/index.html

Last calendar changes/announcements

One year go I made a post about the calendar in next years: http://pentathloncircuit.blogspot.com/2009/10/calendar-tour-in-next-years.html 

Let's see what changed since then:

2011

WC1 - Announced: Palm Springs, California, USA - after many years (a decade), World Cup is back to the USA - see more at: http://usaworldcup2011.org

WC2 was supposed to happen in Guadalajara, Mexico, which later will host the Panamerican Games. No WC anymore in Mexico in 2011, it was replaced by Cairo (Egypt), which was originally WC3. Then WC4 Italy became WC3 and the venue changed from Roma to Sassari and WC5 Hungary became WC4 and it was announced it will be in the capital Budapest. The sumptuous venue of Chengdu, China,  where the 2010 World Championships took place, is now the last and 5th event of regular World Cups. London (UK)  is confirmed as WC Final venue.

The Junior World Championships was moved from Cairo, Egypt, to Buenos Aires, Argentina and the dates were changed (now it will be in September). 

Next year's Congress will be in Nice, France, oh la la! Of course it's subject to change (like happened this year) and is also subject to overturns (like happened this year, oh what a year).

The mysterious "Champion of Champions" still doesn't has a venue.

2012

Mexican and Egyptian World Cups are not confirmed anymore (WC1 and WC3), only the Hungarian WC (#4).It's still not scheduled a 5th WC (maybe because of Olympic Games). The WC Final will be in the fancy instalations of Chengdu, China. World Championships moved from Milano to Roma, Italy,  and I love pasta, yummy! The UIPM Congress will be in Stockholm, Sweden (modern pentathlon centennial in the place it was born - Olympic Games 1912).

2013

Cairo still confirmed for WC2; WC3 in Great Britain now replaced by millionaire Chinese venue in Chengdu (I guess some people still hurted because faced opposition?). Budapest currrently expected to host WC4 and WC5 (?!) at least it's what you can find at UIPM Calendar right now. 

------------------------------------------------

Just wondering: Americas will see USA, Mexico and Brazil hosting WC's in next years (USA have the next, Mexico will have the venue of Panamerican Games and Brazil will be approaching to 2016 Olympic Games). Africa will still have Egypt as first option since only this country has active pentathletes; other African countries could claim a competition in order to develop the sport in the country, but it seems they are far from this at this point. The African tournament then would be endangered, since Asia/Oceania might have one WC/year and European countries missing in last years with strong modern pentathlon teams (Czech Republic, France, Lithuania,Poland) and still not scheduled, like Germany and Russia -new darling of UIPM- also might be back to the calendar.

Farewell Libor Capalini!

Czech pentathlete Libor Capalini announced his retirement as professional athlete this year, at the age of 37. He was one the oldest pentathletes left on the tour and had a successful carrer, having struggled hard against injuries during his career, especially in his last years on the tour. I could not leave out that his career was somehow overshadowed by a certain underachievement because of his injuries, so it's not something to blame him since it wasn't lack of effort and discipline, but a lack of luck. I do not intend to forge a hero or victim here, but if I had to pick one of these options, I'd go with hero. Capalini is a role model for the younger talented Czech modern pentathletes generation - and as long as I know, he helped coach Jakub Kucera and others still as an athlete and now he will keep working with the national federation. 

In Olympic Games Capalini grabbed a bronze medal in the single event he took part, Athens 2004. He missed 2000 and 2008 when he was a high level competitor. In World Championships he finished 2nd (1999), 3rd (2004), 4th (2006), 8th (2005) and 9th (2002). In World Cup Finals, Capalini has a record of one title (2006), one silver (2002) and one bronze (2004). Capalini is also the winner of European Championships 2002, 2 titles at CISM Championships and several medals at World Cups, with 3 titles; not only his individual record is impressive, but Capalini has also several medals with his countrymen in relays and team competitions (see more abouth his achievements at: http://www.pentathlon.cz/cs/Historicke-prehledy-19.htm and http://pentathloncircuit.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html ).

Thank you Libor for all you did for modern pentathlon and you will be missed in the tour as an athlete and good luck in your next steps.

Junior and Youth A 2010 season

The young pentathletes had a busy schedule lately with several major competitions in the last few months, let's check what happened.

World Championships

Junior

The 2010 UIPM Junior World Championships was held in Székesfehévár, Hungary (05-10 August). Local pentathletes Bence Demeter and Sarolta Kovács won the individual competition for the joy of the crowd. The British girls won both the team and relay competitions, while in the men's field South Korea won the team event and France won the relay contest. The field had 72 men and 59 women. Results are available at Cardsys and UIPM.

Youth A

The 2010 UIPM Youth A World Championships took place in Uppsala, Sweden, from 9 to 13 June. The titles went to Chinese Jiahao Han and Hungarian Zsofia Foldhazi. There were 70 girls and 89 boys in the competition. South Korean boys and Chinese girls were pretty successful in the team events, winning both the team and relay competitions. Lithuania was the winner in the mixed relay competition.

Youth Olympic Games

In the first Youth Olympic Games (Singapore, August 2010), modern pentathlon tested the laser pistol and also had a mixed-relay competition with pentathletes put together by draw, with trans-national pairs. In the men's event, South Korean Dae Beom Kim contested the gold medal, while in the women's event Cuban Leidi Laura Moya was the winner. In the mixed-relay event the pair Anastasiya Spas/Ilya Shugarov (UKR/RUS) was the best of the day and both collected their second medal in Singapore (Spas was third and Shugarov was second in individual).

Junior Ranking

Top 30, as of 22 November 2010.

Boys

1- Remigiusz Golis (POL) 174
2- Bence Demeter (HUN) 163
3- Maxim Kuznetsov (RUS) 145
4- Soengjun Kim (KOR) 142
5- Alexander Nobis (GER) 138
7- Maurin Holyst (FRA) 137
8- Nikkos Papadopolo (GUA) 116
9- Yasser Hefny (EGY) 115
10- Gergely Demeter (HUN) 113
11- Artem Nedov (RUS) 105
12- Raman Pinchuk (BLR) 96
13- Paulius Aleksandravicius (LTU) 95
14- Mikalai Hayanouski (BLR) 91
15- Ruslan Diyachkov (RUS) 85
16- Mustafa Nofal (EGY) 83
17- Jan Kuf (CZE) 83
18- Jorge Inzunza (MEX) 72
19- Christopher Patte (FRA) 70
20- Christopher Pietruczuk (CAN) 69
21- Geoffrey Megi (FRA) 69
22- Rene Brown Arreola (ECU) 68
23- Esteban Bustos (CHI) 67
24- Florian Bou (FRA) 66
25- Lukasz Klekot (POL) 65
26- Willian Muinhos (BRA) 62
27- Jose Pereyra (ARG) 60
28- Ki-lim Ko (KOR) 60
29- Jontahan Romo Teran (ECU) 59
30- Armando Abaunza (PAN) 58

Girls

1- Freyja Prentice (GBR) 177
2- Sarolta Kovacs (HUN) 172
3- Margaux Isaksen (USA) 162
4- Elodie Clouvel (FRA) 157
5- Ekaterina Khuraskina (RUS) 154
6- Adrienn Toth (HUN) 149
7- Katy Burke (GBR) 149
8- Samantha Murray (GBR) 146
9- Anais Eudes (FRA) 142
10- Annika Schleu (GER) 135
11- Natalie Dianova (CZE) 133
12- Iryna Khokhlova (UKR) 133
13- Anne Hackel (GER) 122
14- Melanie McCann (CAN) 112
15- Krisztina Cseh (HUN) 111
16- Joanna Gomolinska (POL) 109
17- Oktawia Nowacka (POL) 108
18- Kate French (GBR) 103
19- Magdalena Walesa (POL) 99
20- Tabea Budde (GER) 89
21- Natalya Coyle (IRL) 88
22- Mathea Stevens (CAN) 88
23- Ye Zhang (CHN) 86
24- Svetlana Lebedeva (RUS) 85
25- Ronja Doring (GER) 81
26- Lenka Bilkova (CZE) 79
27- Jihan El Midany (EGY) 78
28- Paola Bartoli (FRA) 76
29- Marion Laval (FRA) 66
30- Tamara Vega (MEX) 64

Pan American Championships: last day: relays

On Sunday the relays competitions happened at the Complexo Esportivo Deodoro, in Rio de Janeiro. These are the results:

Men's Relay
1- Mexico 6004
2- Guatemala 5960
3- Brazil 5848
4- Canada 5744
5- USA 5524
6- Cuba 5504
7- Dominican Republic 5388
8- Ecuador 5116
9- Venezuela 4936
10- Panama 4808
11- Argentina 4576
12- Chile 1936 (Did not finish)

Women's Relay
1- Cuba 4884
2- Canada 4864
3- USA 4804
4- Brazil 4784
5- Mexico 4612
6- Guatemala 4516
7- Argentina 2368 (Did not finish)

Mixed Relay
1- Mexico 5212
2- Cuba 5112
3- Argentina 5040
4- Guatemala 4856
5- Brazil 4440
6- USA 3944

Pan American Championships: second day - women's - Yane Marques defends her title

In the second day of competition in Rio de Janeiro, it was the ladies' turn to fight for medals. No surprise in the competition as local pentathlete Yane Marques and American Margaux Isaksen finished in the first positions, with Yane succesfully defending her title from last year in Buenos Aires. Yane led the event from the very beginning until the finish line quite comfortably, despite Isaksen's good skills in combined event. Upcoming South-American champion Priscila Oliveira, Yane's teammate, finished in third position, denying a podium for best ranked pentathletes, like Canadians Donna Vakalis (5th) and Melanie McCann (6th), who are in the top50 and finished behind of another Brazilian, Larissa Lellys.

There were 24 pentathletes in action on Saturday. Yane won the fencing with 22 wins, areally impressive record; American Caitlin Flathers showed fencing is her best discipline and with 17 wins was the second best fencer of the day, followed by Canadian Melanie McCann (16) and American Isaksen and Guatemalan Marines Garza (15).

In the swimming pool, Yane extended her lead by clocking the fstest time (2:14.29), Oliveira was second (2:17.37), Canadian Vakalis was third (2:17.84) and American Isaksen was fourth (2:19.84).

The riding event didn't have any 1200 top score, but many pentathletes came pretty close. with 1180 points (Yane and Isaksen among them) The unfortunate rides were of Canadian Vakalis  (-260 points), Guatemalan Garza (-220 points) and Cuban Olympic Youth champion Leidis Laura Moya, who didn't score any point at all.

Yane started the combined event with a lead of 1:27 and never was in trouble, managing the lead until the finish line with the 4th best time in combined event of the day. American Isaksen, who is now staring the athlete's blog at UIPM website, where she revealed she's not at her best form in this season, still showed she's a master at combined event and clocked the best time of the day (12:59.84) to finish in second position. Priscila Oliveira had the second best performance of the day in combined event and finished third after starting combined in 5th position, her team mate Lellys also had a strong combined to move up 4 positions in last event and finish in 4th position.


With the solid performances from Marques and Oliveira and Lellys, who was second in Buenos Aires last year, Brazil grabbed another gold in the day in the team competition. The silver went to the Canadian team,composed by Donna Vakalis, Melanie McCann and Mathea Stevens (13th). Cuba clinched its second medal in the competition by finishing third in team competition, with a team made by Katia Rodriguez (8th), Kenia Campos (9th) and Suaima Garcia (15th).

Pan American Championships: first day - men's - successful day for USA

In the first day of competition, William Brady from the USA clinched the title. Brady was second last year (Buenos Aires, Argentina) after a great comeback from Guatemalan Andrei Gheorghe in the second half of the combined event, but this year he managed the lead to take the title. Currently ranked as #27 in the world (the highest ranked pentathlete in the field yesterday), Brady will gain some positions and can end the year ranked as #24. Brady finished ahead of Cuban Yaniel Velazquez, who missed last season and earlier this year participated only in Seniors World Championships, where he failed to qualify for the final. Velazquez now will be ranked around 75-80 in the world ranking. The third place was Jorge Inzunza, from Mexico, who will have a great boost in his ranking too, moving up around 80 positions from his current position (#140). This was a podium dominated by the athletes from Norceca (North and Central America) and local pentathlete Daniel Santos came close in 4th position, best South-American pentathlete of the day. In a very hot day, top 40 pentathletes Dennis Bowsher (USA) and Joshua Riker-Fox (CAN) missed the podium.Bowsher finished in 5th position while Riker-Fox was 11th. Defending champion Andrei Gheorghe, from Guatemala, was 6th and current South-American champion Emmanuel Zapata (ARG) had a disappointing 16th position because of a poor combined event.

Brazilian Daniel Santos confirmed his favouritism in first event of the day, with 27 wins in 31 bouts. Santos is a national champion in epeé fencing. The defending champion Andrei Gheorghe, from Guatemala, was the second best fencer of the day, with 23 wins, and it looked like he wouldn't have much trouble to defend his title after a great start. Argentinian Zapata also started well the day, notching 19 wins, just like Jonathan Ortega, from Mexico.

In the swimming pool, Mexican Jorge Inzunza was the fastest of the day with a good performance of 2:03.65. Brazilian Luís Magno was second and American Eli Bremer was third. They both swam under 2:06. Lester Ders, from Cuba, was fourth and American Dennis Bowsher saw himself in a good condition to start the riding after another 5th position in events standings.

The riding ruined the chances of Guatemalan Nikkos Papadopolo, who had troubles and lost 588 points (Nikkos was one of the leaders in the standings then). There were three flawless rides, so eventual champion William Brady , Argentinian Zapata and Dominican Hernandez scored 1200 points. Inzunza, Santos, Gheorghe and Magno lost some precious points in the riding.

Brady had an amazing display in combined event and finished it in 11:35.96 and this way could surpass his opponents and cross the finiah line in first place. Cuban Velazquez showed his consistent performance paid off and was second, while Inzunza managed to be back on track after the disappointing riding and finished in third position and spoil the fun of the local crowd, by denying a podium to Santos, who finished followed closely by Bowsher and Gheorghe. Canadian Christopher Pietruczuk had a good performance in combined event, doing it under 11:40.00, but started the last event quite back and it was only enough to gain some positions and finish in 18th position, same goes to former South-American champion Cristian Bustos, from Chile, who was 15th.

In the team competition, Brady led the Americans to win the title along with Dennis Bowsher and Eli Bremer (Bremer was 9th in individual). For the joy of the crowd, the Brazilian team composed by Daniel Silva, Luís Magno (7th) and junior Willian Muinhos (14th) was second and Mexico grabbed another bronze medal with Inzunza, Jonathan Ortega (10th) and Álvaro Sandoval (13th).

Results: http://www.clicksports.com.br/campeonato-pan-americano-rio-de-janeiro-19nov10/1/

Comebacks of the year - Women

From the pentathletes that missed the 2009 season and were back on track this year, Yuliya Kolegova, from Lithuania, and Victoria Tereshuk, from Ukraine, were the highlights.

Kolegova collected her points with consistent performances at World Cups, finishing 8th at WC2 (Egypt), 11th at WC4 (Hungary) and 17th at WC Final (Moscow, Russia). Kolegova also was 11th at European Championships.

Tereshuk, who was 3rd in last Olympic Games and won several titles in her career, had as best results in this comeback season the 16th position at World Championships (Chengdu, China) and same position at WC3 (Great Britain).

Kolegova ends the year ranked as #22 and Tereshuk as #36.

Since this and the previous post were about this season, I recommend checking the decade review to see some achievements from the experienced pentathletes: http://pentathloncircuit.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html

Veterans of the year - Women

Latvian Elena Rublevska was born in 1976 and has a long and successful career, finishing the 2010 season in the top 10 (ranked 9th in the world). Her highlights this year were the third position in World Cup Final (Moscow, Russia), a 7th position at WC4 (Hungary) and a 10th position in European Champioships (Hungary). Elena also claimed the title at World Military MP Championships, in Czech Republic.

Polish Paulina Boenisz is another pentathlete who is still at the top after many years. Paulina, born in 1978, finished in 5th position in two World Cups (WC3 - Great Britain- and WC4 - Hungary) and was 9th in World Cup Final (Moscow, Russia).

Czech Lucie Grolichova (born in 1978) didn't have a good year for her standards, still finished the year in a honourable 21st position in the ranking. She was unlucky to miss the World Championships final (Chengdu, China), even though she qualified (she had a flu or something like this) and her best results were a 3rd position in World Military MP Championships, at home, but her ranking points come from a 15th position in WC Final (Moscow, Russia) , a 9th position at WC4 (Hungary) and 11th position at WC5 (Germany).

With the retirement of Polish Edita Maloszyc, maybe the oldest pentathlete left in the tour is the Kazakh Lada Jienbalanova, born in 1970. Lada took part in two World Cups this year, qualifying for both finals and her best result was the 24th position at WC4 (Hungary). Alessia Pieretti, from Italy, born in 1976, had a single appearance this year, at World Military MP Championships, in Czech Republic, where she finished in 6th position.

Rookies of the year - Women

I guess among women the mean age is lower than men's and many pentathletes compete in both levels, junior and senior. This way, many young pentathletes are missing in this post because they took their first steps at senior level prior to 2010. So here we are considering only those who made their début in World Cup or Senior World Championships this year.

British Samantha Murray (born in 1989) had a succesfull season for the first time competing in big competitions, and finished the year ranked as #15. Murray had as best results a 4th position at WC4 (Hungary), 7th at WC3 (Great Britain) and 22nd at World Championships.

German Anne Hackel (born 1991) finished the year as #24. She reached the finals in all World Cups she participated - also in European Championships- , with an impressive 5th position at home (WC5). Hackel's countrywoman, Annika Schleu, also débuted in World Cups this year. It was at World Championships and European Championships that Schleu had her best performances, finishing 13th in China and 15th in Hungary. From China we have Ye Zhang (born in 1991), who like Hackel managed to qualify to all finals in the events she entered. Zhang finished as 22nd at World Cup Final (Moscow, Russia) and 29th at World Championships (Chengdu, China) and now is currently ranked as #41.

Comebacks of the year - Men

This is not about comeback during a competition, but comebacks to the tour. Which pentathletes missed all or most of 2009 season and are back to the tour?

Double (and current) Olympic champion Andrei Moiseev didn't miss the whole last season, but was in action only in WC4 2009 (Italy) and Senior World Championships (Great Britain), failing to go further the semifinals. This year he could compete the full season, and finished 5th at European Championships and 8th at WC4 (Hungary).

Ky-Hyun Kim, from South Korea, was back to World Cups this year and finished 9th at WC5 and is ranked as #44. Yunqi Xu, from China, only took part of Egyptian WC last year, and this year took part of 2 Wcs and the World Championships, at home. Xu is currently ranked as #45. Still in the top50, Steffen Genhardt (GER) and Michal Michalík (CZE) missed most of last season and partially this season.

Cao Zhongrong, from China, may not impress by his current ranking of 67. However, Cao missed last season and this year was earlier in action only in World Seniors Championships, where he narrowly missed the podium, finishing 4th and collecting all his ranking points for the present year. Update: Zhongrong has just won the Asian Games competition, in Guangzhou, China. Sergey Baitaliyk, from Ukraine, is another pentathlete that had a single appearance this year, at World Military Championships (Czech Republic), where he finished 6th. Baitaliyk actually is more active in military competitions than World Cups and World Championships in his career.

Eric Walther, from Germany, is another one who was back to the circuit this year, after missing last year, but took part only in WC at home (WC5) and German Open Championships. Jean Maxence Berrou, from France, was in China for the World Championships and unfortunatelly missed the final, but will be later in action this year at French Open Championships. Erik Johansson, from Sweden, also took part in a small competition in Denmark recently, but I don't know if it means he's coming back from retirement. Talking about retirement, I will dedicate a post to Libor Capalini, from Czech Republic, in the next days. This was his last season according to the news - but we won't be surprised if he decides to give another go again next year.

Please let me know if I missed someone in this post and I will add.

Veterans of the year - Men

Last post was about the rookies, this will be about the veterans. Sorry for those who are in a "limbo age", but here I'm going for the top and bottom ages. Of course I will write similar posts for the ladies later, I'm not forgetting them.

So if the criterias are age and ranking, how could we miss Edvinas Krungolcas? Born in 1973 in the former USSR, Krungolcas is still very competitive - and there are very few active pentathletes left at this age, even less in such a high level. I think there's no answer for the question "are the rookies being favoured by the recent changes in the sport?". Even because the changes (combined event), that are so recent, affected everyone, regarding veterans some may use their experience and have no trouble adapting, while others are having troubles despite their experience . Krungolcas would be here to show that not, but also he's not a regular pentathlete, he's been at the top for many years. Krungolcas is currently ranked #8 and this season he won a World Cup (WC2 - Egypt), was fifth at the most important competition of the year, the Senior World Championships (Chengdu, China) and finished 5th in WC5 (Germany) and 9th at WC4 (Hungary). Check the link at the bottom of this post to have an idea about his succesfull career (and from the other pentathletes mentioned in this post).

His countryman Andrejus Zadneprovskis, born in 1974 in the former USSR, is another veteran who is still very competitive, finishing the year in a respectable 13th position in the ranking. If you have a closer look , comparing with past years, would you dare to say he's decadent? Of course not. You would expect him to be retired by now. But he's not, and he's still at the top. Zadneprovskis grabbed two medals in World Cups this year, was second at the strong WC4 (Hungary) and third at WC1 (Mexico). He also finished in the top 10 in other two competitions (10th at European Championships in Hungary, and 8th at WC5 - Germany). Krungolcas and Zadneprovskis are legend/hall of fame material.

Michal Sedlecky, from Czech Republic, is also in this list of amazing veterans who keep impressing us. Unlike the Lithuanians, Sedlecky didn't stay in the top for so many years, but is a former world champion. This year Sedlecky finished in 10th position at Senior World Championships and in 9th at European Championships, leaving a lot of younger and tallented pentathletes behind. Sedlecky climbed in the rankings this year up to 21th position, closer to the top where he once belonged. Michal is quite younger than Krungolcas and Zadneprovskis, he was born in 1979, but fits for this list.

This list could be different if some didn't retire or weren't struggling against injuries/healthy problems or having problems to adapt to the new format. Anyway, the 70's generation is very well represented.

Check more about the veterans at the decade review: http://pentathloncircuit.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html

Rookies of the year - Men

2010 was a quite surprising year in the men's field. Some newcomers impressed with solid/consistent performances and showed they were no fluke. In recent years we had Polívka and Medany showing the strength of the youngsters, but this year the newbies had a really great display in the men's field. If anyone deserves the title, it should be Aleksander Lesun, from Russia (born in Belarus in 1990). In his first year at senior level he managed to finish the year as the leader of the world ranking. He won one World Cup (WC4 - Hungary) but gained more points by finishing second at Senior World Senior Championships (Chengdu, China) and fifth at World Cup Final (Moscow, Russia). A podium in his début event, World Cup 3 (Great Britain) didn't even make his ranking points.

Lesun has a strong competition from Serguei Karyakin (born in 1988) though, also from the new Russian generation. If Lesun is ahead in the ranking, Karyakin denied Lesun the Senior World Championship title, by winning the most important title of the year (and again, let's remember it was their first year at the senior tour). If Lesun finished third in his first World Cup, Karyakin finished second in his (WC1 - Mexico) - but then the British competition was stronger and its position in the calendar, in the middle of season, also suggests more pentathletes were peaking, but it's not like the Mexican World Cup was a weak event, not at all. Karyakin also finished in 12th position in WC5 (Germany) and in 14th position at European Championships (Hungary) and finished the season ranked as #6.

Another impressive debut was of Polish Remigiusz Golis (born in 1990), who is placed in the top 15 (ranked #14). He narrowly missed a podium this year, as finished fourth at WC2 (Egypt) - his début in WCs - and WC3 (Great Britain). The Polish pentathlete also collected some important points for his ranking in World Cup Final (Moscow, Russia), where he finished in 15th position. Golis actually competed in smaller international competitions in 2009, but the present year was his début in World Cup level.

Lesun's strongest discipline is fencing, while Golis' best discipline is by far the swimming and Karyakin's best features are at swimming and combined event. Of course they all are good pentathletes overall.

From the new generation making the transition from juniors to seniors, we also have from South Korea Hwonho Jung and Soengjin Kim, who are now ranked as #22 and #46, respectively; and Hungarian Bence Demeter, ranked as #42. From the young Russian squad, Maxim Kuznetsov took part in only 2 World Cups this year, still focused on his junior career; he went to the podium in WC2 (Egypt) and missed the final in WC3 (Great Britain). Surely is another one to watch.

I could mention others rookies that had a good start in senior international level, but let's keep it to the big highlights. The youngsters group is very heterogeneous, some recently come from another sport, others already are training for some years but will peak later, so it's not like we can foresee next years, but Lesun, Karyakin and Golis already showed their tallent and let's hope they can keep it up. The junior and youth year review post is coming soon by the way, this one was focused on their performance at senior level.

Pan American Championships: 12 countries confirmed, 60 pentathletes

Now in the eve of the competition, there are 12 countries confirmed: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, United States and Venezuela, besides the host country, Brazil. Ecuador and Panama have just confirmed their teams. 34 men and 26 women are signed to the competition. That's a quite better line-up than last year (in Buenos Aires, Argentina, missing the Canadian and Mexican teams) and we can expect a good competition. I wish I was there but I couldn't go to Rio de Janeiro this week.

competition website: http://www.pentatlomoderno2010.com.br/

My last rant: new amazing ideas for modern pentathlon

Next big step for modern pentathlon is becoming shorter. Less pentathletes in the finals and a quicker competition. You can whine, but the leaders in charge know what's better for the sport. They did it to laser shooting, they can do it again. Even after the introduction of the one day format several years ago, it still lasts too much. All day long competition? Boring! People want fast food, fast sex, fast cars, no waste of time. Time is money. How to sell modern pentathlon if it doesn't become more atractive? Another aspect to be pointed out is that pentathletes also get too tired at the end of the day and a hidden health problem can show up and make a tragedy. Then there is more than one reason for the change, now it must be inevitable. So modern pentathlon has to be saved. It must be shortened. That's the next key for success. Modern pentathlon will become a very popular sport!

First of all, there are too many competitors. It could be reduced in the finals from 36 to, let's say, ten. Maybe eight is better. I don't know. An expensive consultant must be hired in order to advice if 10 -that's a multiple of 5, a number intrinsically linked to the sport-, or 8 - a multiple of 4, like the old cursed giant draw size (36), also fitting better for swimming because of the number of lanes (would allow one heat only) - is the best choice for the sport. Let's get rid of this population that fight for the current intermediary and bottom positions and this way make the standings more easy to understand and to follow during the competition.

Fencing is hard to follow. Many competitors dueling at the same time; it's quite difficult to recognize who's behind the masks, you have to check their names at their backs. By the way, the dress is another important issue for the future of the sport that I will talk about later in this post. With the smaller groups, they could even add an amazing time of 10 or 15 seconds to every duel! Very fair. Less ties. Of course, only if we draw the 10 or eight competitors into two groups. This "one has to face everyone else" is past. By previous results in fencing (50%) and pentathlon ranking (50%) it could be possible to make the seeds and draw two groups.

In swimming a shorter course would make the swimming much more exciting. 50 metres are enough and make it closer. And no need of Olympic swimming pool. In order to bring more audience, men and women should wear sexy swimsuits (also in combined event, that allow it).

Riding takes too many time. We need a mass start. Something like a horse race. No show jump. It's all about being faster. That also could bring gambling to the sport. Betting companies sponsor millionaire football teams. We need some mafia in the sport, that's the modern sport.

Combined event should be shortened too, by smaller distances to run and less shoot bounds. Let's say 1000 metres and 2 rounds of 4 shoots (at the start and at 500m). With less pentathletes and with the changes in previous disciplines, the handicap should be smaller. It would be even more exciting. Woohoo!

Another possibility is keeping the combined event trend. The sport would be renamed "co-combined events". First combined: fencing+riding. Like in medieval duels. Second and final combined: swim + run + shoot. The format would be the summer biathlon (swimming+ running) and the shooting.

OK, a serious note now: I'm not against changes. The way the most recent change to the sport happened, though, sounds arbitrary. The change would eventually happen, smoothly, and the board used a prerogative to overturn the Congress decision. So it's not like a visionary and revolutionary executive board against a conservative or reactionary team of member delegations or vice-versa. An agreement was sealed and later it was overruled. I can picture it wasn't an easy task for the executive board to make this decision. They probably balanced the political costs and the commitments they made before the Congress (and the last sounds wrong). I could make an absurd comparison here with a rapist that asks the victim before the crime if s/he wants it or not, and after the answer no, says/thinks things like "when they say no, they mean yes" or "I don't care, I just want to do it, if not for good, for evil will". If it's an absurd and a not honest comparison, in the other hand it's worrying that I could draw this frivolous parallel. I really hope UIPM regrets from the authoritarian decision and respects the Congress decision. If not, I can just hope it won't be a disaster - and probably won't be, but the turn of events surely was. Like I said in the title, this was my last rant, let's return to the normal (unless something new happens). I actually like this drama, haha.

Fictional repercussion of laser shooting added to modern pentathlon around the world

Some fake quotes/statements and fake yellow journalism headlines about the laser pistol in modern pentathlon:

Non-Olympic Sports Association: "See this confusion? This sport is already too complicated to understand, has no audience and no appeal. A waste of space. Replace it by one of ours".

Anonymous Monegasque citizen: "What's modern pentathlon?"

Jacqueline Roger, world sport leader: "Who cares about modern pentathlon? I couldn't care less".

Modern Pentathlon Haters Association: "Touché on you that are not good in any sport. Your epée is broken. You drowned. Your horse refused to jump, you fell and got a recoil. Then you can't run to save your life and your gun choked. Fail! If shooting doesn't have laser pistol, why the hell are you going to have it? To look even more excentric? Our motto is: we love hating this freak sport. MP sux big time".

Modern Pentathlon Fans Association: "Don't listen the haters. They just don't know what they are talking about and are arrogant. We don't have a statement yet. You know, we have too many political currents here., we are a big association. There are the old school, the contemporary and the futurists. Only the last are supporting the decision".

Greek Minister of Low-Profile Sports: "Are you kidding me? Who's going to pay for this?".

Silvio Il Godfather, Italian prime-minister and bon-vivant: "I'd like to congratulate UIPM directors and invite them to a private sexy party to celebrate the win by smashing the opponents. I love using my pistols, by the way. Both of them, if you understand me. Let's get laid? I love it, just like I love being a millionaire and a powerful politician".

Nikolas Bruni, French president: "So people don't like air pistol? Let's ban them from France then, like we are doing to the romas".

Jean-Marie Le Pencil, French nationalist politician: "I've heard UIPM doesn't like to lose. Let me say Toulouse is a nice city (do not confuse with the city of Nice). I just don't like the foreigners in there".

David Kamera and Angela Marketel, British and German prime-ministers, in a duet: "UIPM needs to reduce their budget and let the market ruling the sport. If the laser pistol brings more investiments, then there's no reason to oppose to the decision".

Baron Pier de Cobertinni (deceased), aristocrat and educator: for obviuos reasons, he couldn't be contacted. There's a report, though, that someone heard him turning on his grave last week.

Vaclav Klaustrophylibek, Czech president: "This talk about environment, global warming, disarmament, European Union, it's all bullshit. They even want to make the actual bullshit a villain in this global warming talk, can you believe? I don't. Damn hippies!".

Wlad Drakuleev Kurvo Rasputin, former KGB agent and former president of Russia: "I think the missile shields in Eastern Europe should use the laser technology, however I also think we should retaliate our neighbours by cutting the laser supply. My companies will build new laser pipelines through Escandinavia and Turkey".

National Rifle/Fire-Guns Association and Tea&Coffee Party Journal (USA): "Laser shooting is for sissies. UIPM is dominated by non-Caucasian, non-Christian, non-heterossexual and Socialist people. Bring back the real guns, they are smoking hot".

Propaganda News (North Korea): "And the modern pentathlon revolution is alive and going on, thanks to the great leader commanding".

Hugo Keys, Venezuelan president: "I'll wait for the opposition telling if they think it's good or not so I can say if it's revolutionary or reactionary".

TierraMirando, opposition media group to Hugo Keys: "We are going to wait for the president's opinion to say if it's democratic or dictatorial. Oh, wait, the laser shooting was defeated in an election? We like to support those who lose in democratic elections. So we agree with laser shooting and people will have to live with that because we are saying that's democracy".

Hugo Keys, again, after TierraMirando statement: "laser shooting is the worst face of imperialism, a danger to our Bolivarian revolution. I'm strongly against it".

Yanti Shalom, Israeli militar and political leader: "We encourage Palestinians using laser pistols. We will keep our conventional arsenal of weapons though".

Hits Ball Lalah, Palestinian guerilla based in Lebanon: "Laser pistol won't bring peace as long as other claims are not attended".

George Drunk Bush, former president of a country outside Middle East: "There were evidences of big oil reserves, I mean, laser pistol stocks in the country we decide to invade".

Weird Nature Science (international scientific magazine): "Scandal! Scientific fraud in evolutionary modern pentathlon report previously published".

Weed-nesday Amsterdam News (Dutch high weekly newspaper): "Greenpeace bribed UIPM in order to approve the laser shooting, because...hmmm...I forgot what I was going to say...and the paper is burnt now...hahaha...I'm hungry".

Klerik News (somewhere inside Italy): "We condemn anyone who makes an abortion, it doesn't matter if it's about people or decisions; in the other hand, we appreciate kids and teenagers playing sports and developing athletic and healthy bodies together with brainwashed minds. So we are not going to investigate".

Dean, Mark Prezz (Danish newspaper): "There's something rotten and it's not here in Denmark. By the way, we held great Congresses here in the last months".

Marques News (Portuguese Socialist newspaper): "Marx once wrote: all that is solid melts into air. It looks like he didn't foresee the laser shooting, but he didn't have to, since he's not Isaac Newton, he was a social scientist".

Sheikh Royal Study Group and Dramatic School of Shakespeare (Saudi Arabia): "This situation is more like Beckett or Kafka than Shakespeare, but we can give some quotes: 'To be or not to be? That's the question' and 'There's more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'".

Gay Wright (civil rights ativist): "We support laser pistols coming out of the closet".

Boris Bela Karloff Lugosi Nosferatu Omniscientskyy, former Soviet pentathlete, former fair play ambassador, current persona non grata, after Gay Wright's estatement: "I don't have skeletons neither laser pistols in my cupboard. Sounds interesting this stuff of laser pistol. I think it will become a hit in next summer. I'm pretty sure I can make it a hit if I want. If the international federation allow me back, I can help them, but it's ironic they don't look touched by my claims".

Wall Street Sidewalk Journal (USA): "IQ Shooting shares increase 202% in one day".

Rick Bogart, American exiled in Morocco: "I think it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship between UIPM and IQ Shooting".

Joseph Sierra, right-wing Brazilian political leader, defeated in recent presidential elections: "I don't like changes. I'm conservative. I used to be a leftist but now I'm loyal to my new allies. By the way there were too many changes in the last centuries, we should restore some stuff. Although I don't want pentathlon to be like in Ancient Greece, because they were not Christians and used to play naked, right? Just should be like almost a century ago".

Louis Squid Silver, current Brazilian president: "Brazilian modern pentathlon is improving, while it's a bit decadent worldwide because of the crisis. Of course our success is all my 'fault', since the country was ruined eight years ago. I don't have a particular opinion on this issue, if it's good for the sport, I'll agree, but if it's bad I'll disagree. Let's see".

Claudius Schoranthropos, sports manager: "Yes, we can. Deal with it".

Changing Pentathlon International Union monthly newsletter: "Everything went very well in last Congress, a great success as always!".

Latest international and national competitions; and pentathletes in fencing competitions

You would expect top Hungarian pentathletes to clinch the first positions in an international competition at home, right? OK, not in the end of the season. The Tata International Competition (October 22) had a great line-up, but the big names failed to perform well in the men's competition and it was a good chance for the youngsters in this competition under the tetrathlon format (no riding). This was also a laser test event, and the odd results are more likely related to a certain and understandable lack of effort from the best ranked athletes (season is pratically over, especially in Europe, and the competition won't bring them ranking points; I'm not suggesting there was a deliberate boycott at all) than to a shaky new technology (as you can see by checking fencing and swimming results).

The men's field had 17 pentathletes and the women's field, 13 . The winners were Czech David Kindl and German Janine Kohlmann. Kindl scored 4296 points and was the best fencer of the day and had a good combined event to finish first. German Steffan Kollner was second and local pentathlete Peter Prill was third. Prill's countrymen Marosi, Tibolya, Nemeth, Kasza and also Gebhardt (GER) and Makarovas (LTU) failed to make a good event, with all of them behind the 8th position. This was also the last competition of Czech Libor Capalini.

In the women's field, Kohlmann collected 3940 points and finished just ahead of Polish Oktawia Nowacka and local pentathlete Leila Gyenesei. Kohlmann and Gyenesei started well in fencing, just behind Cseh, and managed to stay on the top, while Nowacka impressed with a good combined event to finish in the podium. Kohlmann missed most of the season, having participated only in first World Cup (Mexico).

Results: http://www.cardsys.hu/versenyek/2010laser/index.htm


In Asti, Italy, was held the Italian Tetrathlon Championships. Riccardo De Lucca was the winner (4776 points), Nicola Benedetti was second and Federico Giancamilli was third. De Lucca also won the triathlon and combined event competitions. Gloria Tocchi was the winner of the tetrathlon competition (4128 points), Alessia Pieretti was second and Alice Sotero was third. Sotero won the triathlon and Pieretti won the combined event.

source: http://www.fipm.it/news.asp?i=85013&s=6

In Helsingor, Denmark, a competition with Swedish and Danish pentathletes had Michael Brandt and Kim Petterson Bohlin as winners. The competition was in September.

results: http://www.modernfemkamp.se/SMres.htm
pictures and info: http://www.modernfemkamp.se/

In Resende, Brazil, the national qualifying (October 23) for the Panamerican Championships drew the Brazilian team that will be later in action. Yane Marques topped the women's field, while Daniel Santos was the best of the day among the men. Priscilla Oliveira, Laryssa Lellys, Luís Magno and Willian Muinhos also sucessfully qualified. The alternates for the international competition were also defined (by 4th position) and Mariana Laporte and Danilo Fagundes are also in the team.

results: http://www.pentatlo.org.br/pdf/226.pdf

Pentathletes in Fencing Tournaments

-Mhairi Spence and Louise Helyer were in action in Commonwealth Fencing Championships in Australia, and grabbed a silver medal in team competition for Scotland. Spence also finished in 5th position and Helyer in 20th position in individual competition.

http://www.pentathlon.org/media-centre/latest-news/1-latest-news/604-gb-pentathletes-win-silver-fencing-medal-with-scotland-team

- Daniel Santos won the Brazilian Epée Fencing Championships in Curitiba, while Yane Marques was a runner-up. A good display from several Brazilian pentathletes in the championship. Earlier this year, Yane won a national title and Santos was the runner-up in an event in Rio de Janeiro.

http://www.pentatlo.org.br/noticia_detalhe.php?cod_noticias=366
http://www.pentatlo.org.br/noticia_detalhe.php?cod_noticias=365
http://www.pentatlo.org.br/noticia_detalhe.php?cod_noticias=312

Art: Jan Saudek's picture for Dukla Praha Calendar (featuring Svoboda and Polívka)

Picture by Jan Saudek for 2011 Dukla Praha Calendar. Featuring David Svoboda (left), Tomas Klus (musician, center) and Ondrej Polívka (right).

For more pictures of calendar, check at idnes.cz: http://sport.idnes.cz/bauer-jako-musketyr-kovboj-sebrle-saudek-potreti-nafotil-dukle-kalendar-1o5-/sporty.asp?c=A101025_123527_sporty_bur

Coming soon on pentathloncircuit blog....

I'm still working on this year's stats. Just like last year, I'll bring the best scores for World Cups and World Championships. I'm also working with the year review on junior and youth A and B levels. I'll wait for the next competitions to make a year-end ranking post too and also a year review, something more qualitative than quantitative (beyond the numbers). I said something about making a ranking watch during the season but I've realized it wouldn't make much sense, since some competitions from last year weren't dropped yet when the new one was computed in the system, and with only best of 3 going to the ranking it makes it more meaningless.

The future of modern pentathlon: the next steps

Featuring: laser fencing!























Featuring: swimming pools replaced by wave tanks!























Featuring: mechanical horses!















Combined event now featuring running-roller shoes!


Trying to solve the dichotomy of future and past (by maybe ruining the present?), just when the sport is about to complete 100 years, the decisions now will be made in old style, like in the 30's:

Next UIPM Congress:




















The next board in charge:







Please note this is NOT a serious post and I apologize in advance if someone feels offended, it was made with the sole intention of critic humour.

Pentathletes lookalikes

Edvinas Krungolcas (LTU) and Spanish tennis player Juan Carlos Ferrero.







































Steffen Gebhardt (GER) and British actor Paul Bettany



















David Svoboda (CZE) and - surprise- his twin Tomas. David recently won the award of pentathlete of the year in Czech Republic and Tomas replaced his brother since David couldn't go because he was recovering from an operaion on his tonsils. That's a multi-task family, Tomas is a triathlete.


Do you have any other suggestion of lookalike?

Holy Shoot! The laser pistol implementation

The annual UIPM Congress took place in Riga, Latvia (it was scheduled for Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, and for unknown reason it was suddenly changed to Riga). Surely this wasn't the turn of events that most impressed the pentathlon community. First, the implementation of the laser pistol wasn't approved for the next Olympics and its qualification (they needed 2/3 of the votes) and so it would be implemented only for Juniors and Youth A and B (it was expected that UIPM's will would win). Then, the board used a prerogative to make it real, despite the defeat in the poll. I guess a lot of discussion happened in Riga, and I can understand both points of view. The laser guns are the future of modern pentathlon, environmentally friendly and surely much more safer for athletes and viewers (also is supposed to make easier the travels and the problems in the airports), I guess it was a consensus, but when and how to make the change was the issue. I know the costs play an important role and are a challenge for a sport that is at the same time so expensive and have such a lack of sponsors - we can also question the lobby of those companies that detain the technology. The change in the middle of an Olympic cycle is surely saw as reckless. When FINA changed the swim suits rules, UIPM followed the decision. Now UIPM is ahead of another international federation - I can't say if it's good or not.

Just like it happened with the combined event, the test events that should have happen during the year didn't happened as planned. They will say it didn't happen because they were careful, I think it's actually because of poor planning and poor talk between UIPM and national associations, athletes and coaches. The sport has to move on, try a balance of keeping the tradition and becoming more popular so can save its ass (sorry for the vulgar word). The board probably knows the consequences of overruling a Congress decision and also considered it politically safe as they narrowly missed the 2/3 of votes (or was that a huge mistake?). I just hope it wasn't a shoot -and I mean a shoot in old-fashioned gun - at their own feet.
Well, that's my 2 cents on the issue.

Check the UIPM clarification on laser shooting: http://www.pentathlon.org/inside-uipm/2010-congress/644-press-release-clarification-on-uipm-laser-shooting
and a video made by UIPM explaining the laser shooting: http://www.pentathlon.org/media-centre/video-highlights?video=laser-shooting_4371

since the clarification was not that clear, a more comprehensive view on what happened by Great Britain's performance director (and Olympic medallist by former Czechoslovakia) Jan Bartu: http://insidethegames.biz/sports/summer/modern-pentathlon/11056-exclusive-bartu-hits-out-at-london-2012-laser-gun-confusion-

And from British Pentathlon website, a very honest report on the Congress and its main discussion, the laser pistol: http://www.pentathlongb.org/

Continental competitions: Panamerican Championships and Asian Games

The season is almost over, with few competitions left.

The Panamerican Championships will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 19 to 21 November. The event is also a test event for the 2011 World Military Games and the same venue of 2009 World Cup Final and pentathletes can secure a spot in 2011 Panamerican Games (Gadalajara, Mexico). After the World Military Games, the place (Complexo Esportivo Deodoro) will start the changes for the 2016 Olympic Games - the place is supposed to host not only modern pentathlon, but also shooting, mountain bike and canoe and kayak slalom.

Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Cuba, United States, Guatemala and Mexico will have pentathletes in the men's and women's field, while Panama, Dominican Republic and Venezuela will take part only with male athletes.

The first day of competition will see the men in action, with individual and team prizes. In the second day, it's the ladies' turn to duel, swim, ride, run and shoot. In the final day we will have the relay competition.

The defending champions are Andrei Gheorghe, from Guatemala, and Yane Marques, from Brazil.

Check out the competition website (Only in Portuguese for now): http://www.pentatlomoderno2010.com.br/index.html

Unfortunately I can't go to Rio de Janeiro to watch the competition live.

The XVI Asian Games are going to take place in Guangzhou, China. Modern pentathlon is for the third time in the event (first time was 1994, the competition is held every 4 years but modern pentathlon has been in the program only every 8 years).

China, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kyrgyztan and Uzbekistan are the participating countries and medals will be handled for individual and team competition (it looks like there's no relay in this event, even though it had in 2002). The women's competition will be on Tuesday, November 23 and the men's competition in the following day.

The current champions are Kim Mi-Sub, from South Korea, and Lada Jiyenbalanova, from Kazakhstan. They both helped their teams to win the team competition too, 8 years ago in Busan, South Korea, while local pentathletes grabbed both relay medals (no mixed relay in 2002).

Check out the participating athletes: http://www.gz2010.cn/info/ENG_ENG/ZZ/ZZE132C_MP@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ENG.html

Latest international senior competitions: Central American and Caribbean Games, Open Swiss and Grand Prix Slovakia

XXI Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe (21st Central American and Caribbean Games) - Mayagüez, Puerto Rico (MP at Guatemala)
Dates: Individual (July 29) and Relay (July 30)

The modern pentathlon was one of the sports in this regional Games. The competition was held in Ciudad de Guatemala (Instituto Austriaco Guatemalteco). There was only the men competition and team competition (relay) and 8 pentathletes took part in this event. Oscar Soto, from Mexico, won the competition with 5564 points. Ismael Hernadez, also from Mexico, was second, while local hope Nikkos Papadopoulos finished in third position. In the following day, Guatemala took the gold in team competition; Mexico took the silver and Dominican Republic took the bronze. The absences were the team from Cuba (didn't take part in the Games at all) and current Pan-American champion Andrei Gheorghe (Guatemala) - note: there's a difference between Pan-American Championships (annual, this year it will be in Rio de Janeiro) and Pan-American Games (every 4 years, next will be in Guadalajara, Mexico).

Click here for individual results (PDF file).

Click here for relay results (PDF file) and here for more info.


Open Swiss Championships - Burgdorf, SUI - September 11-12

Local pentathletes Yves Walz and Belinda Schreiber were the winners. Nice to see Schreiber still active.
Click here for results (PDF file).

Vel'ká Cena Slovenska - Banská Bystrica, SVK - September 24-25

Lukasz Klekot from Poland was the winner, Marek Szmek from Czech Republic was second and Tomas Dolezel from Slovakia was third.

Click here for results.

38th South American Championships - Quito, Ecuador - Emmanuel Zapata and Priscila Oliveira are the winners!

Promising Brazilian youngster Priscila Oliveira won the 2010 South American Championships, her first international title in senior level. Priscila finished just ahead of 2008 champion Larissa Lellys and Argentinian Pamela Zapata was third. In the men's competition, Argentinian Emmanuel Zapata was the winner, local pentathlete David Ruales was second and current Brazilian champion Aloísio Sandes finished in third place. In the team competition, Brazil won the both the titles in senior level.

Other winners were: Junior: Ayelén Zapata (ARG) and Esteban Bustos (CHI); Youth A: Mariana Laporte (BRA) and William Muinhos (BRA); Youth B: Nikole Huilca (ECU) and Caio Silva (BRA).

Click here for the results.

New: UIPM report: http://www.pentathlon.org/media-centre/latest-news/1-latest-news/598-2010-south-american-championships

2010 World Senior Championships - Chengdu, China- Relays

Polish pair of Czwojdzinska and Golis won the mixed relay competition on Sunday, Ukraine (Tershuk/Tymoschenko) was second and Lithuania (Rimsaite/Kinderis) was third. Czech Republic and Russia were close to the podium, finishing in 4th and 5th.

On Monday, Belarus surprised and upset the favourite countries. Even without Yahor Lapo, but counting on leader Meliakh, Belarus denied Korea (2nd) the win while Russia (3rd) fought hard to put themselves in the podium and leave Great Britain (4th) out. The Czech relay team had a good combined but started far behind so could only finish in 5th position. The winner relay team of Belarus was composed by Meliakh, Prokopenko and Mitsyk.

Closing the competition, on Tuesday the ladies had their relay competition. The Russian team had Struchtukova, Gretchichnikova and Khuraskina and finished in first position and denied France their third gold medal in the championships. China was placed in third position so the guests could celebrate their only single medal in the competition. The British team finished in fourth, followed by the German team.

Click here for results.

Click here for the news at the competition official website.

Click here for pictures at UIPM website.

Click here for video highlights at UIPM website.

Amélie Caze wins her third World Senior Championships; Rimsaite takes the silver and Schöneborn, the bronze; France wins the women's team competition

The women's final was on Saturday, September 04. In a rainy day in Chengdu, China, Amélie Caze from France, who was recently crowned European champion, won her third World Championships title (she was the winner in 2008 - in Hungary - and 2007 - in Germany).

Cazé finished in the top10 list of every event in the day. In the first event, with 25 wins in 34 bouts, collected 1024 points and was only behind Aya Medany from Egypt, who had an impressive 1048 points after 26 wins. Russia Khuraskina abandonned in first event so 35 pentathletes were left in competition. Schöneborn was third with 22 wins, tied with Rublevska (LAT) and defending champion and crowd favourite Chen finished fencing in 5th position along with Russian Gretchichnikova with 21 wins.

In the swimming event, French Elodie Clouvel was the fastest by clocking 2:07.90 (1268 points) - better than the 2oth best result in the men's final. Hungarian Kovacs and Gyenesei improved their positions in the provisional standings by swimming under 2:12.00 and Caze had the fourth best time of the day and took the lead in the standings, followed by Medany, Clouvel, Kovacs and Schöneborn.

In the riding, Polish Czwojdzinska was the only one of the group of 7 pentathletes that topped the field with 1180 points to lose her points by time penalty (1:22.70), so all the other pentathletes in this group lost their 20 points by minor mistakes in the course. Caze scored 1148 points and managed the lead in a good position for the combined event, with her points converted to a 38 seconds lead in the following and final event over her closest rival, Schöneborn. Medany was the third in the start list, followed by Gyenesei, Pataki and Rimsaite. Defending champion Chen lost 200 points in riding and dropped to 15th position. Fifteen pentathletes failed to score over 1000 points and Natalie Dianová from Czech Republic left the competition before the combined event.

In the combined event, Caze was never in trouble and managed her comfortable lead until the finish line with a time of 12:40.38 (9th best of the day); Rimsaite, whose skills in combined event are well known, managed to jump to second position with a time under 12 minutes, and Schöneborn, even with her pretty decent display (6th best time) was not enough to keep the second position. The only pentathlete to beat Rimsaite's time in combined event was American Margaux Isaksen (11:56.41) which made her move from the 25th to the 12th position. Medany finished in fourth position and Czwojdsinska and Brazilian Yane Marques moved up to 5th and 6th positions, respectively. Defending champion Chen disappointed and couldn't repeat her amazing performance of last year and finished in 19th position.

In the team event, Caze and her team mates Eudes and Arnaud won the competition with 15108 points (could have a bigger lead if Clouvel were in the team); Great Britain, who had two pentathletes in the top 10 in the individual competition, took the silver medal and Germany was the third, leaving Hungary and China out of the podium (all those teams had their three pentathletes in the final).

Serguei Karyakin wins the 50th World Championships, Lesun takes the silver and Kinderis the bronze; Lithuania wins men's team competition

The 50th edition of the World Senior Championships (Chengdu, China) had two young athletes from Russia, in their first season in senior circuit, claiming the first two positions in the men's individual final. Both pentathletes impressed in their débuts this year in World Cup events - the winner, Serguei Karyakin, was 2nd in WC1 (Play del Carmen, Mexico), while Aleksander Lesun was 1st in WC4 (Budapest, Hungary) and also finished in impressive 5th position in World Cup Final (Moskva, Russia) and a podium in his first World Cup (WC3, London-UK).

Karyakin and Lesun proved the importance of a good fencing, and led already from the beginning. Lesun collected 1000 points with 24 victories out of 34 duels (Yasser Hefny from Egypt withdrew in first event). Karyakin ended the first event tied with Köllner with 21 victories, worthy 928 points.

Amro El Geziry was the fastest swimmer of the day and gained 1360 points with a time of 2:00.12 (previously he was 7h with 19 wins) and took the lead. Local hope Cao was the second top scorer (1348 points) and put himself in a good position for the next events (in the end of the day he was the fourth to cross the finish line, missing the podium). Karyakin moved to third position in the standings with the ninth best time and Lesun clocked the 17th time, losing the lead but still would be the 2nd last to perform in the riding event. Defending champion Marosi had a good swim after a disappointing fencing and was back on track, while Svoboda, the current European champion and who was second in World Championships in the last two years didn't manage to improve much his position after the 2nd event.

There were two flawless riders in the show jumping event, Karyakin and Mexican Oscar Soto. The perfect ride made Karyakin the provisional leader after 3 events. Lesun lost 80 points on his ride and dropped to 2nd in the standings, while Amro El-Geziry dropped to 3rd by losing 60 points.

Karyakin managed the lead in combined event with a good display (4th overall) and had a comfortable win, computing 5816 points; Lesun also had a good combined event (7th best time) and finished in second and Justinas Kinderis, Zhongrong Cao and Ondrej Polivka moved up to 3rd, 4th and 6th positions (they had the best times in CE of the day), with Krungolcas dropping to 5th position. Favourites Marosi and Svoboda finished the competition beyond the 10th position and Amro finished in the 20th position.

In the team competition, it would be expected Russia to win, however the line-ups are made before the semifinals and double Olympic champion Andrey Moiseev was selected to be part of the 3-men team while Karyakin was left out. Lithuania (Kinderis, Krungolcas and Makarovas) won the gold medal in the team competition, while the Czechs (Polivka, Sedlecky and Svoboda) finished in second position and Hungary (Marosi, Kasza and Nemeth) was third.

Click here for individual results.
Click here for team results.

2010 World Senior Championships - Chengdu, China- Women's Semifinals

We had 56 pentathletes in women's semifinals, divided into two groups. In each group of 28 people, bottom 10 will miss the final in two days. Czech pentathlete Lucie Grolichová had health problems and did not start.


In Group A, French Elodie Clouvel was too consistent in swimming and fencing (1st and 3rd, respectively) and finished the group in first place, her team mate Arnaud was second and British Fell was third in the group. Kuznetsova was fourth after clocking the best time in combined event and world #1 Donata Rimsaite was 8th having topped the fencing event - and probably saved her energy in combined event, where she's a master. The last qualifying spot in the group went to Polish Nowacka, who denied her countrywoman Wojcik a place in the final.

In Group B, current European champion Cazé from France was the fastest swimmer, collecting 1200 points, and also the second best fencer (1 victory behind leader Tóth from Hungary) which helped her to just manage the lead in combined event to finish in the first place. Hungarian Pataki was second and Brazilian Marques was third, finishing just ahead of favourite Schöneborn. Chinese Zhang and Canadian Vakalis had a strong combined event and secured a place in the final. Struchtukova, Burke and Walesa were the biggest names to miss the final in this group, finishing in the last ten positions.

Follow all the action at UIPM and results are being updated first at Cardsys.

38th South American Championships - Quito, Ecuador (September 02-06, 2010)

source image: http://www.rtu.com.ec/deportes/

The 38th edition of the South American MP Championships will be held in the capital of Ecuador, Quito, in the very next days. 75 athletes from 6 countries will compete in youth, junior and senior level. The countries with representatives are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela (yes, Panama will take part in the event even though it's placed in Central American, but let's remember Panama used to be part of Colombia). Yane Marques, from Brazil, will miss the competition since she is competing in the World Senior Championships in Chengdu, China, so the competiton is wide open, with Larissa Lellys from Brazil and Pamela Zapata from Argentina being the favourites to take the title. In the men's field, members of the strong and leveled Brazilian team might face strong competition from Chilean Cristián Bustos and local David Ruales.

The venue is the Escuela Superior Militar (Esmil) in Quito. In this same place a competition of military pentathlon will be held later this month in the 20th Festival Sudamericano de Cadetes (September 11-16).

Source: lahora.com article (in Spanish)

Brazilian squad: http://www.pentatlo.org.br/noticia_detalhe.php?cod_noticias=333 (in Portuguese)

Venezuelan squad: http://www.mindeporte.gob.ve/galeria/v/PENTATLON/

2010 World Senior Championships - Chengdu, China- Men's Semifinals

And the World Championships has just begun and we already know the 36 pentathletes that will be in the men's final. There were eighty four pentathletes in the semifinals this Wednesday, 1st September, so 3 groups of 28 pentathletes with the top 12 advancing to the finals (as usual, no riding in qualifications).

Group A had Oscar Soto from Mexico finishing first, followed by Kinderis (LTU) and local pentahlete Guo. The top performers in swimming (Woodbridge) and combined event (Tibolya) missed the final, just like Moiseev who had a strong fencing event - was second along with Mordasov, who also will miss the final, and behind Soto - but failed after all to get a spot in the final. Ádám Marosi finished the qualifying in the fourth position of the group.

Group B had Italian Giancamilli, Korean S. Kim and Polish youngster Golis finishing the qualifying with the same score, 4408. As expected, Golis and British Cooke swam under 2 minutes, but the British failed to qualify, finishing in the 14th position because of a poor combined event, since in fencing he surprised by finishing third. Other highlights were Egyptian Hefny leading alone the fencing and favourite Svoboda being the fastest in combined event. Youngster Holyst from France secured a place in the final while P. Kirpulyanskyy, Omar El Geziry, Riker-Fox and Bremer are out of the final (Bremer for some reason didn't start the combined event and we hope he's somehow fine).

Group C was led by South Korean H. Jung, followed by Frolov, Chmielewski and Hilgeholt. Japanese Noguchi had a very poor combined event and missed the final, even after leading the fencing - along with Chmiliewski- and having the second best time in swimming. Top pentathlete who is back after some time out of the circuit, Berrou, from France, had a good display in swimming by clocking the best time, but still will miss the final, as will Meliakh (BLR), Weale (GBR) and Cerkovskis (LAT). Polívka (CZE) showed his good form in combined event by having the best time and finishing in the 6th position in the group.

Click here for results.

Click here for pictures of the first day (championship website).

Click here for timetable and schedule (time zone Chengdu: GMT +8).

Click here to check the news at UIPM.

2010 European Senior Championships- Debrecen, Hungary

Schedule:
Women: Semifinals - July 15; Finals (individual and relay) - July 17
Men: Semifinals - July 16; Finals (individual and relay) - July 18

59 male pentathletes, 42 female pentathletes.

Official website: http://ottusacsalad.hu/

Results: http://www.cardsys.hu/versenyek/2010eb/index.htm

UIPM page: http://www.pentathlon.org/competitions/continental-championships/european-championships

Latest international senior competitions: Portuguese Intl. MP Trophy, German Open Championships and Senior Open Ch. of Poland

Portuguese International Modern Pentathlon Trophy: May 08-09 2010, Colega, Portugal.

Maurin Holyst from France won the men's competition with 5708 points, while Chloe Esposito from Australia took the title in women's competition, with 5196 points.

Results

German Open Championships: June 26-27 2010, Berlin, Germany

Top ten:

Men: 1. Kollner (GER) 5592; 2. Borrmann (GER) 5580; 3. Gebhardt (GER) 5564; 4. Lehmann (GER) 5560; 5. Nobis (GER) 5520; 6. Walther (GER) 5496; 7. Cooke (GBR) 5464; 8. Worrall (GBR) 5352; 9. Papadopoulos (GUA) 5296; 10. Bailey (IRL) 5204

Women: 1. Trautmann (GER) 5296; 2. French (GBR) 5264; 3. Hackel (GER) 5256; 4. Schleu (GER) 5232; 5. Schöneborn (GER) 5232; 6. Doring (GER) 4968; 7. Knack (GER) 4928; 8. Mahrokh (GER) 4816; 9. Budde (GER) 4780; 10. Rosling (GBR) 4732

Full results

Senior Open Championships of Poland - June 26-27, 2010 - Szczezin, Poland

Top five:

Men: 1. Klekot (POL) 5760; 2. Malyuchenko (RUS) 5668; 3. Golis (POL) 5628; 4. Majewski (POL) 5624; 5. Staskiewicz (POL) 5568.

Full results

Women: 1. Czwojdzinska (POL) 5268; 2. Boenisz (POL) 5164; 3. Nowacka (POL) 5096; 4. Mancicni (ITA) 5056; 5. Walesa (POL) 4996.

Full results

41st World Military Modern Pentathlon Championship - Praha, Czech Republic - Svoboda and Rublevska win.

The 41st edition of World Military Modern Pentathlon Championship had Czech David Svoboda and Latvian Elena Rublevska winning their fields and the Czech teams dominating the team competitions.

The men's field was of 35 men (Wagner Romão from Brazil withdrew due to health problems). Svoboda was the top scorer in fencing, 2nd in combined event and 4th in swimming, leading the competition from the beginning to clinch the individual title and collecting 5900 points. His countryman Ondrej Polivka was second, scoring 5764 points, followed closely by Dae San Kim from South Korea, who scored 5760 points and with a great combined event left Makarovas (LTU) and Michalik (CZE) out of the podium. Other highlights in the individual competition were Italian Franceschinni being the fastest swimmer (clocked 1:58.90/1376 points) and Jung-Sub Kim from South Korea having the best performance in combined event (10:31.72/2476 points). The riding event had a good display from the pentathletes and the horses, with 6 flawless 1200 scores. This was also the farewell from local pentathlete Libor Capalini, who took the gold in team competition along with Svoboda and Dvorak. The other Czech team, with Polivka, Michalik and Sedlecky was 2nd, but it was an unofficial team, so the silver went to South Korea and the bronze to Italy.

The women's field had only 15 pentathletes and the favourites didn't disappoint and finished in the top positions. Grolichova from Czech Republic took an early lead after the fencing, followed close by Rublevska. Brazilian Yane Marques didn't have a good fencing but had a good swim to start the combined in a good position. In the last event, Rublevska and Marques were stronger than Grolichova and finished 1st and 2nd, while the local pentathlete dropped to 3rd position, still enough for the podium. Her countrywoman Natalie Dianova finished in 4th position and Tereshuk from Ukraine was 5th. In the team competition, Grolichova, Dianova and Cerna won another gold medal fro Czech Republic, Ukraine was 2nd, Brazil was 3rd and Italy finished in the fourth and last position.

The men's competition was held on Saturday, 3rd July, and the women's competition was on Sunday, 4th July.

Click here for more detailed info (official website with full results, schedule, pictures, etc).

41st World Military Modern Pentathlon Championship - Praha, Czech Republic - Entry List

The 41st World Military Modern Pentathlon Championship will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, from 1st to 5th July, 2010. There's a strong field with top pentathletes from 14 countries and we can expect great action with sucg great line-up.

Check the webiste: http://www.pmo2010.info/

Entry List: http://www.pmo2010.info/countries.htm

2010 World Cup Final - Moscow - Marosi and Schöneborn clinch the titles.

Ádám Marosi from Hungary and Lena Schöneborn from Germany confirm their favouritism and finish first in 2010 World Cup Final. Comments to follow.

Results: http://www.cardsys.hu/versenyek/2010wcf/index.htm

2010 World Cup Final - Moscow - Entry List

So now half of the year has passed and the World Cup Series comes to an end with the World Cup Final. No events were cancelled or postponed this year and a better timing (schedule) was made so the World Cup events were close to each other (not so good for the athletes who are recovering from injury that missed more or all events because of this). The laser shooting system won't be seen this weekend in Russia as it was planned, which sounds a bit worrying since it should be used in next Olympic Games already (the introduction of the combined event followed quite the same pattern and in the end it worked well).

This year's World Cup Final seems to have less withdrawals than last year's WCF (which I watched live) and I guess the main reasons are that it takes place in Europe and also it's in the middle of the season. The women's field is still quite depleted, though, after many withdrawals. The Asian teams are confirmed which is great - last year only one Japanese pentathlete came to Brazil and was the single representant of Asia.

Click for the entries (PDF file):
Men
Women

The cuts are: Moiseev (#43 in World Cup standings) and Herrarte (#74 in World Cup standings).