Sports

Orangeville athlete finishes third in provincial pentathlon

June 15, 2015   ·   0 Comments

Orangeville’s Christopher Rudolph managed a third-place finish in the Senior Men’s Championship at the Ontario Modern Pentathlon Championships, held recently in Fergus and Moffat.
Athletes representing Ontario, British Columbia and Kentucky competed at the championships, including five who were recently nominated to Team Canada for the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games.
Two of the five, Garnett Stevens of Rockland and Evin Ballantyne of Baden, finished in first and second place ahead of Rudolph, who had just returned from competing at the International German Championships in Berlin.
The Senior Women’s champion was Olympian and 2015 Pan American Games team member Donna Vakalis of Toronto, who edged out 2015 Pan Am Games teammate Melanie McCann of Mount Carmel in a thrilling finish of the combined Run/Shoot event. Third place went to Beatrice Cigagna of Schomberg, another athlete fresh from the International German Championships, where she posted a 14th place finish in an international field.
Boys Youth division winners included Ian Davidson of Guelph and Sebastian Lucko of Elora. Girls Youth division winners were Maeve Hay-Cooper of Dundas, Georgia Rudolph of Orangeville, Chelsea Spence of St. Catharines and Riley Denoon from Guelph. In the Masters 70+ age group division, Howard Simmons of Toronto finished first after claiming a gold medal at the CanAm Veterans Fencing Cup the previous day.
Modern pentathlon consists of five events conducted over a single day: fencing (épée), swimming (200 metres freestyle), equestrian (show jumping) and the final two sports which are combined — laser pistol target shooting alternating with running. Athletes earn points in the first three events (fencing, swimming, and equestrian), after which their total point differentials are converted into time handicaps to determine the start order for the combined running/shooting segment. In this final leg, athletes shoot at targets with laser pistols in four series separated by 800 metre runs in an exciting chase. The first athlete across the finish line wins.
For more information on modern pentathlon visit www.pentathloncanada.ca