Nick Woodbridge wins Bronze in pentathalon 2012 Olympic test

[ovenpaa]

I as excited to read Nick Woodbridge has became the first British male to ever win a pentathlon World Cup Final medal by taking bronze in London's Greenwich Park on Saturday, I mean they use guns in this don't they? Then I read closer

Most recently, the sport's traditional air pistols have been replaced with laser guns for the shooting element.

No matter, a big well done to Nick for taking Bronze medal within a firearm related discipline and very good luck for 2012.

[Christel]

I did read somewhere that they had replaced it with laser.

Shame really.

However well done that man

[Sandgroper]

From wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_pentathlon

The modern pentathlon was invented by the Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games.[1] The name derives from the Greek penta- "five" and -athlon "contest".[1] The addition of modern to the name distinguished it from the original pentathlon of the ancient Olympic Games, which consisted of the stadion foot race, wrestling, long jump, javelin, and discus. As the events of the ancient pentathlon were modeled after the skills of the ideal soldier of that time, Coubertin created the contest to simulate the experience of a 19th century cavalry soldier behind enemy lines: he must ride an unfamiliar horse, fight with pistol and sword, swim, and run.

Now if they changed it back to that format, wouldn't it be fun!

BTW Well done Nick Woodbridge.

[ovenpaa]

My Father competed in the Military Pentathlon, they used a service webley, plys fencing, running and certainly swimming as I suspect that is why he was picked for it. He once told me they were at an immediate disadvantage when competing against officers as the officers had all but unlimited pistol practise time where as he used to be given half a dozen rounds every so often so could never get the practice he needed.

In DK they have a similar thing called the 'fighting fives' or similar (The Viking will know) Occasionally they come to the same range as us to practice, usually 5.56x45 at 200/300m, sometimes all male teams and sometimes mixed. They mostly seem to be very fit and scary looking people who don't talk or smile much standing in small groups. Even the regular Army seem to avoid them :lol:

[rox]

I did read somewhere that they had replaced it with laser.

Shame really.

I thought they'd backed out of that. Lasers were mentioned prior to this report:
London 2012 Olympics: laser guns dropped as modern pentathlon rules for air pistol
I don't know whether there has been a change since.

[Sim G]

A laser....... can that really simulate a pistol? Perfectly straight trajectory, speed of light velocity, no recoil, noise, or blast!

The "Playstation Generation"?