Military pentathlon

The Military Pentathlon is a multisport.

History of the Military Pentathlon

The modern pentathlon was originally designed to include the ideal skills of a soldier of the time. By the Second World War, some of those skills (fencing and horse riding) were irrelevant to the modern soldier.

In 1946 a French officer, Captain Henri Debrus (later promoted Colonel and President of the Conseil International du Sport Militaire (CISM)) conceived the idea of organising a sports competition reserved exclusively for the army. It was during discussions held at Frankfurt am Main which led to the setting up of the Allied Forces Sports Council, that his attention was drawn to an original military physical training technique used, at that time, by the Netherlands airborne units. After being dropped over a given zone, parachutists had to travel a distance of twenty kilometres from the dropping point, crossing over a number of obstacles and performing combat operations (small arms fire and grenade throwing).

Captain Debrus took the Dutch method as a guide, eliminated the parachute jump and modified the other tests in order to form a system, which he thought, would constitute an ideal way of ground training. A first trial competition organised by himself was held at the Military Physical Training Centre, at Freiburg, in the French occupation zone in Germany, in August 1947. Only Belgian, Dutch, and French teams took part in the competition.

Since 1950 annual world championships have been held. The sport has grown in popularity, and now over 30 countries participate. The sport's governing body, the CISM, now also organise pentathlons aimed at naval and air force personnel.

Events of the Military Pentathlon

• Shooting: At a distance of 200 metres, competitors are tested separately for precision (10 shots in 10 minutes) and rapid-fire (10 shots in one minute) shooting.
• Obstacle running: Competitors navigate a 500 meter obstacle course with 20 obstacles.
• Obstacle swimming: Competitors must swim a distance of 50 meters, including four obstacles.
• Throwing: Competitors are tested separately for precision and distance throwing. In the precision test, competitors throw 16 projectiles (inactive grenades) at targets on the ground at varying distances.
• Cross country running: Competitors undertake an 8 km cross country run.

Shooting

The shooting discipline consists of sighting shots and the competition shooting. The competition shooting consists of:

• precision fire : 10 rounds in 10 minutes maximum.

If electronic scoring systems are not used, the time available is 12 minutes. After the announcement of "15 seconds remain" the signals >>START<< and >>STOP<< are given by short whistle blasts. The precision fire will be started at the same time for all shooters participating in the same heat.

• rapid fire : 10 rounds in 1 minute maximum. The competitor will not get information on the result of the individual shots

during the rapid fire series. Therefore the monitors will be turned away or off. The rapid fire will be started in two rounds (every second shooter, first the uneven numbers followed by the even numbers) in the same heat. Competitors in the non-shooting round must remain absolutely still.

• Distance is 200 m (+/- 0.75 m).
• Weapons & ammunition : 300m Standard Rifle. All types of ammunition can be used that may be fired without danger to competitors and range personnel.

Tracer, armour-piercing and incendiary ammunition are prohibited. Weapons and ammunition must be provided by the team.

• Target : Electronic targets or paper targets may be used. The 300-metre rifle target (according ISSF General Technical Rules par. 6.3.2.1) will be used. Separate targets will be used for precision and rapid fire.

Obstacle Run

The length of the course is 500 m and consists of 20 standardised obstacles.

• Track : The contest will be held on one or several lanes, provided that all lanes are identical. Each competitor is compelled to follow his own lane.
• Obstacles : The obstacles will be constructed and placed on the track. Obstacles of men's event consist of rope ladder(1), double beam(2), trip wire(3), network of wire(4), ford(5), espalier(6), balance beam(7), sloping wall with rope(8), horizontal beams(9), Irish table(10), tunnel and twin beams(11), four steps of beams(12), banquette and pit(13), assault wall(14), pit(15), vertical ladder(16), assault wall II(17), zigzag balance beam(18), chicane(19), 3 assault walls in succession(20). In case of women's event, obstacle no.1, 8, 12, and 16. will not be negotiated.

Obstacle swimming

Throwing

Throwing consists of precision throwing at distances of 20, 25, 30 and 35 meters (5m shorter for each target for females). The targets consist of an inner circle with radius of 1m, and an outer circle with radius of 2m. The time allotted for precision throwing is three minutes, 16 grenades with 4 grenades on each target. Distance throwing is also included, where competitors throw three grenades in two minutes. Only the longest throw will count toward the score, which combines points for both distance and precision.

The weight of grenades is 600 grams for men and 400 grams for women.

Cross-country Running

See also

• Military World Games
• World Military Pentathlon Championship