It was in November 2008 that the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) decided to radically alter their sport by combining two of the five events - the running and the shooting disciplines.

They did this with the intention of creating more excitement in a sport that has had its status as an Olympic event called into question in recent Games due to its seeming lack of popularity outside of Eastern Europe.

Despite criticism of such a dramatic change - which many believe has too radically altered the historic sport - it is undeniable that the restructuring of modern pentathlon has resulted in a more unpredictable and therefore more exciting climax to an event that was a favorite of the founder of the Modern Olympic Games: Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

The new run/shoot format basically involves athletes taking part of three bouts of pistol shooting followed by a 1000 metre run. In each of the three rounds of firing, athletes must hit the target five times. They must reload their gun after each shot and once they have hit all five targets, they may then resume running. If they don’t hit all five, they must wait until 70 seconds pass them by before they are allowed to continue running again.

This may not seem like a huge amount of time but when some of the better shooters can hit all five targets in just 25 seconds, 70 seconds can feel like a lifetime and can mean the difference between a gold medal and tenth place.

The key then, is to have a steady hand under pressure.

With my rather naïve view that shooting a few targets and running around a track couldn’t be that difficult, I confidently drove down to Medway Park in Gillingham, the picturesque venue that is set to host the Modern Pentathlon World Cup over the next four days. 

I arrived at the Medway Park having signed up for the journalist’s opportunity to participate in the run/shoot event following a press conference with modern pentathlon Beijing 2008 Olympic silver medallist Heather Fell, Olympian Nick Woodbridge and the precocious 19-year-old Freyja Prentice who has finished in the top-10 in all three of her World Cups to date.

To my delight, I bump into my esteemed insidethegames colleague Mike Rowbottom during the press conference who agreed, rather reluctantly, to join me in the journalist’s run/shoot event.

We marched out to the impressive athletics track which featured the temporary shooting range set to be occupied by the world’s best pentathletes.

There didn’t appear to be much of a structure in place for us so rather than run around the 400 metre athletics track, every single journalist, including Mike and myself, headed straight for the shooting range.

Once there, we were supplied with a magnificent silver pistol by the delightful pentathlon shooting staff and instructed on how to aim at the centre of the target.

After a few wayward shots that appeared to be more of a danger to the pedestrians of Gillingham than the target, I started to find my range and began to edge towards the bull’s-eye.

In the station next to me, I found none other than Mr Rowbottom, who was looking unusually focused. Mike was holding a pose that would have made James Bond proud and I grudgingly admit that it appeared to have a positive effect on his shooting.



Mike was consistently hitting the target and, after imitating his one-eye-open/one-eye-closed technique, I found myself almost as consistent as my colleague. 

In fact, after five minutes or so of shooting, it was becoming slightly too easy as the novelty of firing a shiny silver gun began to wear off.

“This isn’t too difficult” I said to Mike who was so immersed in concentration that I doubt he heard me. After a while, I put down my pistol and a minute or ten later, so did Mike.

“Do you fancy doing one lap of the track to see if it is harder to shoot when you are out of breath?" I asked Mike.

“Yeah okay” he replied to my complete surprise.

Mike took off his shoes while I took off my coat and we set off on our one lap together.

I was expecting my colleague to be a relatively slow runner but to my astonishment, Mike flew off the start line like Usain Bolt at an Olympic Games. Not to be outdone, I stepped it up a gear to draw back level.

We continued round the top bend side by side until Mike put in a burst of speed towards the end of the race to pull ahead. As I lined up my own sprint finish, Mike - inadvertently he claimed - diverted straight into my path to block my inevitable overtake. Though the picture suggests Mike was the victor of our one lap race, I feel inclined to say that he is a far better journalist than he is fair-competitor.

Anyway, enough of Mike’s devious tactics.

The two of us sprinted across to our shooting stations and picked up our pistols once more.

I was not expecting a 400m run to take very much out of me but as I looked up at the target and raised my pistol to aim, I began to wonder why everything was swaying from side to side.

I quickly realised that the run had thrown my senses completely off-balance and though I tried to hit the centre of the target; my heavy breathing made such a feat an impossibility.

My arm inexplicably felt extremely heavy and I was finding it difficult to regain the balance and posture I had achieved before I embarked on the one-lap run.

To my delight, I saw out of the corner of my eye that Mike had so exhausted himself on our run that he appeared too uncoordinated even to load his pistol.

I tried to steady myself again when I suddenly remembered a conversation I had had with Freyja Prentice just after the press conference.

I had asked her for her expert advice on the run/shoot format and she had replied: "Slow you’re breathing down and when you aim you pistol, hold your breath for a second so you’re hand is steady while you aim."

Feeling confident, I held my breath and aimed.  Needless to say, I completely missed the target and almost passed out through oxygen deprivation. After well over 70 seconds had passed and I had not hit the target once, I decided to call it a day and so did Mike.

I left Medway Park wondering how anyone can hit five consecutive targets three times in a row after running three sets of 1000m. If I was a pentathlete, I know I would certainly be better at the original format where the two events were separate. However, I had to admit that the run/shoot event is certainly a challenge and after today, I believe that anyone who can master the discipline certainly deserves their reward.

The run/shoot event may have come in for criticism and it may not be entirely in keeping with the history of modern pentathlon but no one can deny how exciting it is. And as Mike, I and anyone who has tried the event would readily confess; it’s bloody hard!

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames and insideworldparasport