Neha Patil (Editor)

Modern pentathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Date
  
11 August

Winning score
  
5928 OR

Competitors
  
36 from 22 nations

Venue
  
Copper Box (fencing) Aquatics Centre (swimming) Greenwich Park (riding and combined)

The men's modern pentathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was held on 11 August. Three venues were used: the Copper Box (fencing), Aquatics Centre (swimming) and Greenwich Park (horse-riding and combined running and shooting).

Contents

David Svoboda from the Czech Republic won the gold medal with an Olympic record-breaking score of 5,926 points. Cao Zhongrong, 2010 Asian Games gold medalist, won China's first ever Olympic medal in modern pentathlon, taking the silver. Meanwhile, Hungary's Ádám Marosi claimed the bronze medal. For the first time in the post-Soviet era, Russia missed out of the medal podium in the men's event, as current world champion Aleksander Lesun and defending champion Andrey Moiseev finished fourth and seventh place, respectively.

Competition format

The modern pentathlon consisted of five events, with all five held in one day. The format was slightly different from the typical modern pentathlon, with two events combined at the end.

  • Fencing: A round-robin, one-touch épée competition. Score was based on winning percentage.
  • Swimming: A 200 m freestyle race. Score was based on time.
  • Horse-riding: A show jumping competition. Score based on penalties for fallen bars, refusals, falls, and being over the time limit.
  • Combined running/shooting: A 3 km run with pistol shooting (the athlete must hit five targets in 70 seconds) every 1 km. Starts are staggered (based on points from first three events) so that the first to cross the finish line wins.

    • Schedule

    All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

    Results

    Thirty-six athletes participated.

    Records

    For the first time in Olympic history, the men's modern pentathlon has broken multiple Olympic records in the every sporting discipline, with the exception of horse-riding.

    References

    Modern pentathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA