Juniors' Roll of Honour/Hall of Fame and the transition to the senior level.

The transition from junior to senior level is an issue in every sport. In tennis we can see it can be a difficult transition - even though the top pro players usually had a great junior record, but then many top juniors can't make it at pro level. Same goes to football, if you consider the national teams U-17, U-20 and, years later, in the main team you will see few players still there. Of course several aspects are involved. The peak age of a sport (if there's such one), the size of the circuit (modern pentathlon circuit is much smaller than tennis and football) and, for each individual, personal affairs (sponsors or lack of it, athletes quitting because of other professional activities, especially after uni, injuries, etc).

I've compiled the podium of Junior World Championships from the last 10 years - from 1999 to 2004 I could only find for boys in odd years and for girls in even years at UIPM website, they have the semifinal results for most of them though, only missing the final. Sure the junior world year-end ranking could give a more accurate idea of each season by having more competitions, but it was easier to compile the WJC standings.

Junior World Championships Top 3 by year

1999 - Chieti, Italy
Men
1 - Jae-Kun Choi (KOR)
2 - Martin Dvořák (CZE)
3 - Aleksei Turkin (RUS)

2000 - Sofia, Bulgaria
Women
1 - Tatiana Mouratova (RUS)
2 - Olessia Velitchko (RUS)
3 - Dominika Grodzicka (POL)

2001 - Budapest, Hungary
Men
1 - Michal Michalík (CZE)
2 - Steffen Gebhardt (GER)
3 - Alexei Savikov (RUS)

2002 - Sydney, Australia
Women
1 - Olessia Velitchko (RUS)
2 - Omnia Fakhry (EGY)
3 - Evdokia Gretchichnikova (RUS)

2003 - Athina, Greece
Men
1 - Mihail Prokopenko (BLR)
2 - Ilia Frolov (RUS)
3 - Cedric Pla (FRA)

2004 - Székesfehérvár, Hungary
Men
1 - Sergei Shovin (RUS)
2 - Ádám Marosi (HUN)
3 - Dmytro Kirpulyanskyy (UKR)

2005 - Moskva, Russia
Men
1 - Ádám Marosi (HUN)
2 - Jean-Maxence Berrou (FRA)
3 - Da Wen (CHN)
Women
1 - Lena Schöneborn (GER)
2 - Aya Medany (EGY)
3 - Mhairi Spence (GBR)

2006 - Shanghai, China
Men
1 - David Svoboda (CZE)
2 - Peter Tibolya (HUN)
3 - Mena Tadros (EGY)
Women
1 - Aya Medany (EGY)
2 - Mhairi Spence (GBR)
3 - Amélie Cazé (FRA)

2007 - Caldas da Rainha, Portugal
Men
1 - Ondřej Polívka (CZE)
2 - Maxim Aldochkine (RUS)
3 - Serguei Karyakin (RUS)
Women
1 - Adrien Tóth (HUN)
2 - Tatsiana Klimovich (BLR)
3 - Lena Schöneborn (GER)

2008 - Cairo, Egypt
Men
1 - Serguei Karyakin (RUS)
2 - Pierpaolo Petroni (ITA)
3 - Dmitrios Motsios (GRE)

Women
1 - Aya Medany (EGY)
2 - Krisztina Cseh (HUN)
3 - Sarolta Kovács (HUN)

2009 - Kaoshiung, Chinese Taipei
Men
1 - Jihun Ahn (KOR)
2 - Jinhwa Jung (KOR)
3 - Serguei Karyakin (RUS)
Women
1 - Aya Medany (EGY)
2 - Svetlana Lebedeva (RUS)
3 - Margaux Isaksen (USA)


















David Svoboda (CZE), Ádám Marosi (HUN) and Dmytro Kirpulyanskyy (UKR), the young podium at 2009 World Senior Championships (London, UK)
















Ondřej Polívka, Michal Michalík, David Svoboda [CZE]; Ádám Marosi, Péter Tibolya, Róbert Németh [HUN]; Justinas Kinderis, Edvinas Krungolcas and Andrejus Zadneprovskis [LTU] - podium of London Senior World Championships 2009 - men's team


















Aya Medany (EGY), Amélie Cazé (FRA) and Katy Livingston (GBR) - podium at World Senior Championship 2008 (Budapest, Hungary)



We can see that most of the top juniors became top senior athletes, with few exceptions. If it's not that surprising since it have few competitors, in the other hand it shows many of them are already successful in first years as seniors - some even have good results while already as junior (under 22 years old) - and we can't say that a veteran or a mature athlete has an advantage, since some skills are supposed to improve with the years, like fencing, shooting and equestrian, while others can be expected to have a decrease in performance (I would say especially swimming, since we can see in running, for this distance of 3km, many veterans mastering).

We can see also athletes with several podiums (Medani's record is really impressive and Karyakin is one to watch), that's interesting since it's a sport hard to have regularity and consistency - in the other hand, the best pentathletes usually have more consistency than the others. An interesting question is if can the younger athletes take advantage of the changes in the sport's format - can they adapt better and faster or do the veterans also have such an experience that help them too?

It's known that many of the athletes were originally from one of the five disciplines and later moved to modern pentathlon, swimming being the main source of athletes as far as I know.

Geopolitics of the sport - some thoughts

Just some first thoughts about geopolitics of modern pentathlon. For those who follow the tour, it's not new that the Eastern European countries dominate the tour. Other European countries, like Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy also have great teams. I'd like to know what happened to the nordic/Scandinavian countries, which used to be dominant in the first half of modern pentathlon history and nowadays have just a small role in the circuit. I'm also curious how such a militarized country like Israel doesn't have any top athlete, considering the strong link the sport has with the army; I guess it's not a priority of Israeli army. On a side (and sad) note, I remember reading at UIPM newsletter the president of the Palestinian federation was killed during the last conflict in Gaza territory.
It's great that countries outside Europe are improving in the sport - special mention to Egypt, Mexico, China and South Korea. We could add to the list also United States, Japan, Canada and Brazil and basically we have all the non-European countries with competitive athletes at the present time (sorry if I'm missing any country). It's very important for the sport to grow worlwide and I think it's trailing the right way.
Since we are talking about the teams, it would be great if we have the relay and team competitions in the Olympics, and it's not just about giving more medals, like a consolation, I think the format is interesting for the public and yes, the sport deserves more medals. They used to have the team competition in Olympic Games.

What is lacking in competition results info?

I'd like to be an unemployed millionaire to follow the whole circuit. Well, if I were one, I probably wouldn't follow the whole circuit - surely some other interesting things would appear in same dates(but I'd sponsor the circuit, since the prize money is still poor, lol, in the other hand I'm glad there are serious sponsors that maintain the sport). Modern pentathlon results breakdown aren't already easy to make or even to understand, and kudos to UIPM and their staff that do a great job. Maybe it's only me, and my academic formation, but I'd like to have more info about the competitions, especially the main competitions (World Championship, World Cups, Continental Championships and others with more points for the New Balance World Ranking). Since it's so easy to complain and purpose, I'm doing it.

The venue: more info about the venue. Introduction (history), maps, weather conditions at the days of competition.

Fencing: it would be a freak table, but why not having the full results, and not only W-D (win - defeat)? I'd like to know if the best in fencing won against the second best or if he lost to someone classified worst than 20th in fencing, and when it happened (first duel, nineteenth duel?), how many defeats were defeats or tie/level. How many pistes and which duels were in each one too. Yes, I know it's crazy.

Swimming: I would like to know the start lists of the heats, and its lanes and standings. Also the type (indoor or outdoor, size of the pool) and penalty points for false start.

Equestrian: I'd appreciate to have the start lists (that show the current standings) and the draws (athlete-horse). The penalty points also could be displayed (time, faults) and the course/track too (info about size and surface).

Combined event: Start list again (current standings) and how it went (after shooting and arrival at the shooting range every "round").

Many of this info can be found at UIPM website in invitations section, but it's info pre-tie, it would be cool to have it with results.

The athlete info also could be improved, with more and updated info (like season best points, best ranking and date, etc).

Of course I know how difficult would be to have all this info compiled and make it available. It depends on so many people, especially local organizers and it's interesting for the sport to have less requirements in order to attract more events, but I think it can be partially/mostly accomplished in long term. Since I expect an increase in the sport's popularity, this changes would naturally come. I'm used to more popular sports (specifically tennis) that have a much bigger structure and then have not only more info, but also some lack of it in the detail I claim in this post.

The standings after each event and start lists are very desirable, like they have for decathlon in athletics. I guess some graphics showing the progression through the competition and for each event also would be great.