Pentathlon's Makeover--the New Rules

So after much drama, the electronic targets were released from the airport late last night. The competition organizers were busy this morning setting them up. I had a chance to go by and look at the venue. It looks like everything will be in working order. The wind was bad last night and they don't have wind blocks properly set up, but it does not appear that that will cause a problem today.

Here is a quick summary for those of you unfamiliar with our new sport format. There were a number of changes made to the sport for the 2012 quad. All were geared toward making the competition run faster and be more spectator friendly. About 40 minutes was cut from riding by eliminating some formal customs from the beginning. That was a very good change and I don't think anyone objected. The other change was highly controversial and barely passed in November. That was to combine the run and the shoot into one event, sort of like a winter biathlon. This is the first major competition with the new format.

The run/shoot is conducted as follows: You start about 30 meters from the shooting line. Athletes are handicapped based on their scores for the first two events (for instance, I am in 13th place and will start about 30 seconds behind the leader). You run to the line and you have to hit the target 5 times before leaving the range. The target is 10 meters away (33ft) and is about the size of a silver dollar. After 5 shots or 70 seconds, whichever comes first, you run 1000 meters. This is repeated three times continuously. Because of the original handicap, the first person to cross the finish line is the winner.

In a semifinal event, the top 36 athletes advance to the final. At this competition, we only have two groups so the top 18 move forward.

If you're interested, you can find the full explanation and rules at http://www.pentathlon.org/index.php?id=256.