Main Pentathlon Contenders At London Olympics

The Modern Pentathlon is an event that is not well known. The only time it comes into the limelight is during the Olympic Games. The Modern Pentathlon has its origin in an apocryphal story. A French cavalry officer was assigned to deliver a message. In the course of his mission, he had to ride, fence, shoot, swim and run, which are the five sporting disciplines that constitute the Modern Pentathlon.

The Modern Pentathlon is staged over a single day. First the athletes are required to fence against every other athlete. This is followed by swimming 200m freestyle and riding in a 12-jump course. The competitors are scored for each event. These scores are converted into a time handicap, which determines the starting times for the combined event of shooting five targets three times within 70 seconds and running 1,000m three times. The winner is the athlete who crosses the finish line first.

In the 2012 London Olympics, the Men's Pentathlon will be held on Saturday August 11 and the Women's Pentathlon on Sunday August 12, the final day of the Games. 36 competitors will participate in each event.

Main Contenders For Men's Pentathlon

Andrey Moiseyev is a Russian pentathlete, who is the gold medal winner at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In 2009, Moiseyev met with an accident that hampered his performance for two years. He is currently ranked second. Sportingbet offers odds of 2/1 on him, which is makes him the favourite at the online betting site.

Aleksander Lesun, another Russian, is currently world number one. 2012 has been a great year for him. Lesun said, "So winning the Olympic Games together with the World Championships won earlier this year and the birth of my child would make it a year that I will never forget." Sportingbet online has posted marginally longer odds of 9/4 on Lesun.

Main Contenders For Women's Pentathlon

Lena Schoneborn from Germany is ranked number four in the world. Despite that Sportingbet online has her as the favourite with odds of 9/4. Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania is ranked first in the world. She is another pentathlete who has become a parent this year. Her husband, Andrejus Zadneprovskis, is also a pentathlete. Sportingbet has odds of 11/4 on Asadauskaite. Victoria Tereshuk of Ukraine is ranked fifth and has odds of 4/1 at Sportingbet online.

Mhairi Spence hails from the home contingent of Great Britain. She was not selected for the 2008 Olympics and considered retiring thereafter. Spence returned to the sport in 2011 and a gold medal at the 2012 World Championships secured her the Olympics berth. She enters the Olympics ranked second and with odds of 13/2 at Sportingbet online.

 Posted by Renee Israel at 09:28 on 10 August 2012