The Surrey Modern Pentathlon Club is a non-profit making organisation which is affiliated with Pentathlon GB.  

Modern Pentathlon comprises of five sports:

• swimming

• fencing

• horse riding (show jumping)

• running (run/shoot combined)

• 10m pistol shooting (run/shoot combined)

Formed in 2014 and hosted at St Teresa’s in Effingham, we currently hold swimming, fencing and laser pistol coaching on a Monday evening during term time.

The Club is open to boys and girls aged 11-18 years old.   

We recently became one of the first pentathlon clubs to purchase laser pistols and now have our own qualified pistol coaches inhouse. We do continue to coach 10m air pistol shooting, once a month (click here for details), in partnership with Bookham Rifle Club.

We aim to provide a safe, friendly and fun environment for children. Whilst we aim to support and encourage athletes in Pentathlon, we are keen to engage any child who wants to participate in one or more of the five disciplines.

We will endeavour to guide athletes to other clubs should we be unable to cater for their specific needs.

Current Olympic Champions, Rio de Janeiro 2016

​

Men's Modern Pentathlon

36 competitors from 25 nations

GOLD      - Aleksander Lesun       - Russia

SILVER   - Pavlo Tymoshchenko - Ukraine

BRONZE - Ismael Hernández      - Mexico

Women's Modern Pentathlon

36 competitors from 26 nations

GOLD      - Chloe Esposito       - Austrailia

SILVER   - Élodie Clouvel        - France

BRONZE - Oktawia Nowacka - Poland

What is the Modern Pentathlon?

pentathlon - derives from the Greek péntathlon "contest of five events"

Pentathlon (or Modern Pentathlon) is one of the most demanding multi-sports in the Olympic programme.

The current Olympic format consists of:

• round robin fencing competition

• 200m freestyle swimming

• show jumping

• combined pistol shooting & 3200m cross-country run

It has been a core men's Olympic sport since 1912, the women's competition was introduced at the 2000 Olympics.

Originally the competition took place over 4 or 5 days, however, in 1996 a one-day format was adopted to make it more affordable and more audience friendly.

Except for the fencing competition, athletes do not directly compete against one another in the five events. Like the Decathlon, athletes gain points for their performance in each event and scores are combined to give an overall total.

However, an innovation was introduced in 2009, to make the finale more exciting, the last event became a combined event: laser pistol shooting and cross-country running.

Competitors are ranked according to their score from the first                                                          three disciplines meaning the

                                                         current points leader would                                                            start the run/shoot first and                                                            the competitor with the                                                                    lowest points starts last. The                                                          3200m cross country run is                                                              spilt into 800m laps where on                                                          completion of each lap they have 50 seconds to knock down 5 targets with a laser pistol. Therefore, the first person to cross the finish line will be the overall points leader and win the pentathlon competition.

The History of the Modern Pentathlon

The current combination of sports was devised by

Baron Pierre de Coubertin (the founder of the Modern

Olympics) in 1922 and were designed to test an athletes

"moral qualities" as much as their physical resources and

skills, producing the "ideal, complete athlete”.

The addition of modern to the name distinguished it from the original pentathlon of the ancient

Olympic Games, which consisted of the 

stadion foot race, wrestling, long jump, 

javelin, and discus. As the events of the

ancient pentathlon were modeled

after the skills of the ideal soldier of

that time, Coubertin created the

contest to simulate the experience of a

19th-century cavalry soldier behind

enemy lines: he must ride an

unfamiliar horse, fight enemies with

pistol and sword, swim, and run to

return to his own soldiers.

​

About Surrey Modern Pentathlon Club (SMPC)

In July 2015 St Teresa’s opened their onsite equestrian centre and SMPC members can take advantage of very competitively priced horse riding lessons. All abilities are catered for.

Please contact us for further details.

St Teresa's Equestrian