By Genadijus Sokolovas, Ph.D., High Performance Director, USA Pentathlon
Modern Pentathlon opened its international season with the Modern Pentathlon World Cup #1 last weekend. It was held on US soil in beautiful Sarasota, FL from Feb 18-22. The world’s best pentathletes from 35 countries participated at this event: 85 women and 94 men. As a host country, team USA was represented by 12 women and 12 men at this event. In other World Cups, only 4 women and 4 men will be competing for US. It was a great opportunity for some younger athletes to compete along with top international pentathletes.
Women’s Competition
The US women competed very well. It was the first time that 3 US women qualified for the final (top-36) at the World Cup level. Margaux Isaksen (Fayetteville, AR), Samantha Achterberg (Denver, CO), and Isabella Isaksen (Fayetteville, AR) had strong results in the prelims and qualified for the final. Although a former swimmer from University of Denver and University of Arizona Grace Kittle (Dallas, TX) missed the final, she had a strong performance in swimming with 2:12.21 in 200 meters (2nd place in her group) and personal best results in fencing and combined event.
Photo Courtesy: USA Pentathlon
The top 36 women from around the world competed in the final. The first event was fencing. Pentathletes fence in so-called Round Robin, where they have one-touch fencing with every competitor in the final. Every athlete has 35 one-touch bouts. The fencing event was won by Zhang Xiaonan from China with 25 victories. The US leader Margaux Isaksen fenced really well, winning 24 bouts (2nd-3rd place, 244 pentathlon points). Isabella Isaksen had 18 victories (208 pentathlon points), and Samantha Achterberg finished with 15 victories (191 pentathlon points).
The next event was swimming. Pentathletes swam 200 meters freestyle at the long course YMCA pool in Sarasota. Former French National Team swimmer Elodie Clouvel won the event in 2:09.71. Margaux Isaksen swam 2:16.06 (6th place, 290 pentathlon points), Samantha Achterberg 2:22.47 (273 pentathlon points), and Isabella Isaksen 2:31.17 (247 pentathlon points). Margaux led the competition after fencing and swimming events.
Photo Courtesy: USA Pentathlon
Margaux Isaksen in swimming event
After swimming event, pentathletes moved to the 3rd event, horse riding. Riding involves show jumping throughout a 350-450 m course with 15 obstacles. Athletes ride an unknown horse. They are paired with a horse in a draw. It gives Modern Pentathlon its special character. The riding event was won by Janine Kohlmann from Germany with a max score of 300 pentathlon points. Five other athletes, included Samantha Achterberg, scored perfect 300 points. Isabella Isaksen finished with two knockdowns (286 pentathlon points) and Margaux Isaksen with three knockdowns (279 pentathlon points). Before the combined (running/shooting event), Margaux was in 3rd place.
Photo Courtesy: USA Pentathlon
Margaux Isaksen in riding event
Pentathlon combined event includes four rounds of laser pistol shooting from 10 meters distance and 800 meters cross-country run. Athletes have to hit a target 5 times before they can run. The total number of hits is 20 and total running distance is 2 miles (3,200 meters). Donata Rimshaite from Russia won the combined event in 13:05.48. She missed just one shot in shooting. Margaux Isaksen had good combined event in 13:30.31 (6th place in combined, 490 pentathlon points). This time allowed her to move from 3rd to the 2nd place in overall standing. The silver medal was a great start of the international competition season for Margaux. Samantha Achterberg finished the combined event in 14:07.38 and placed 19th in overall standing. Isabella Isaksen had solid combined event in 13:55.16 and finished in 27th place in overall standing.
Photo Courtesy: USA Pentathlon
Women combined (shooting/running) event
The winner of the World Cup 1 was Samantha Murray (Great Britain) with 1309 pentathlon points. The 2nd place went to Margaux Isaksen (USA) with 1303 points, and 3rd to Kate French (Great Britain) with 1298 points.
Men’s Competition
There were plenty of great results in men’s prelim competition. Top swimmer in pentathlon was Logan Storie (Corvallis, OR) who broke the pentathlon world record with 1:53.72 in 200 meters. This result gave him 359 pentathlon points. Storie has been competing in pentathlon for less than 2 years. Despite of that, he missed the final (top-36) by just 7 pentathlon points. The highest ranked US pentathlete Dennis Bowsher was the only US athlete to qualify for top-36 to compete in the final.
In the final, Dennis Bowsher had 15 fencing victories (190 pentathlon points), swam 200 meters in 2:08.15 (316 pentathlon points), had one knockdown and 5 points time penalty in riding (288 pentathlon points), and 12:35.10 in combined event (545 pentathlon points). Dennis finished in 31st place overall.
Photo Courtesy: USA Pentathlon
Dennis Bowsher in show jumping
The gold medal winner of the World Cup 1 was James Cooke (Great Britain) with 1427 pentathlon points. The silver and bronze medals were awarded to Russians Egor Puchkarevskiy with (1421 points), and Ilia Frolov (1416 points).
The next Pentathlon World Cup is going to be held in Cairo, Egypt from March 19 to 23. Four women and four men will compete for team USA at this event.
Mixed Relay Competition
Mixed relay includes two athletes (a women and a men) representing a country. It is non-Olympic event. However, this event may be included in the program of 2020 Olympic Games. In the relay competition, every athlete competes over the twice shorter distances than in individual events: women fence against women, men fence against men, swimming 2 x 100 freestyle relay, each athlete jumps 8 obstacles in riding, and shooting/running 2 x 5 hits/2 x 800 run.
Photo Courtesy: USA Pentathlon
Margaux Isaksen and Dennis Bowsher in swimming relay
Photo Courtesy: USA Pentathlon
Combined (shooting/running) relay: Dennis Bowsher and Margaux Isaksen, Team USA
The team USA was represented by Margaux Isaksen and Dennis Bowsher. US athletes finishes in 5th place overall. They had 13 victories in fencing (11th place), swam 2:03.51 in the 2 x 100 relay (12th place), had one knockdown in riding (1st place), and finished strongly in combined event with time of 12:11.89 (2nd place). The winners in the mixed relay were teams from Russia, Ireland, and Canada.
You may find more information about USA Pentathlon at www.usapentathlon.org