Last week, JER kindly sent us a post catching up with the sport of pentathlon and previewing the World Cup event held in Charlotte, North Carolina this past weekend. Today, JER is back to give us results and notes from the competition. Thank you JER for sharing this with us– it’s a welcome break from Red Hills mania! But don’t worry, dear readers, there’s plenty more Red Hills to come later today and throughout the week. But for now…Go Pentathlon!
Pentathlon World Cup wrap-up
This
weekend, Charlotte, NC hosted the first World Cup of the 2012 modern
pentathlon season. Of the four athletes profiled on EN last week,
Canadian girl Melanie McCann got through the qualification round and
into the final to finish in 15th place. [full results – Charlotte Pentathlon World Cup]
UIPM’s YouTube channel
has all the action for your pentathlon viewing pleasure. The riding
highlights show the top half of the table, all in real time:
The
first ride is atrocious, just textbook awful. That girl should have
been given the old showbiz hook and yanked out of the ring. After that,
it does get better but really, those UIPM apparatchiks shouldn’t
tolerate any display of utter incompetence on a horse. If you couldn’t
swim, they’d pull you out of the pool because you’d be a danger to
yourself. Why should riding be any different?
The
horses are an impressively capable lot. Big props to their owners for
loaning them out for the weekend. I’d have happily hopped on any one of
them. Riders, for the most part, give pats and hugs after crossing the
finish. If you didn’t know it was pentathlon, you’d think they were
riding their own personal horses rather than one they just met twenty
minutes ago.
Melanie’s
ride, which starts at 13:09, is an absolutely lovely double clear.
This should be a big confidence-booster for her. She struggles with
nerves and fear in the riding phase – and is refreshingly candid and
open about this – so a nice showjumping round to start off the 2012
season means a lot. Well done, Mel!
