Pentathlon
The Pentathlon, for under 15 boys and girls, comprises five events and is a competition against oneself and the scoring tables to score more points than the other competitors. It is a test of mind and body; challenging the person's character, attitude and determination and physical abilities.
The Events
The Pentathlon (5 events) for under 15 boys is held on one day in the following order:
The Pentathlon (5 events) for under 15 girls is held on one day in the following order:
Training
When training for combined events, athletes will work on techniques and conditioning, during which each event sets its significant physical demands.
The events in the pentathlon and their key physical demands are detailed in the following table:
| Event | Aerobic Endurance | Gross Strength | Skill | Relative Strength | Running Speed | Mobility | Explosive Strength | Speed Endurance | Strength Endurance |
| 75m & 80m Hurdles | - | Med | High | High | High | High | High | Med | - |
| High Jump | - | Low | High | High | High | High | High | - | - |
| Shot Putt | - | High | High | Med | Low | Med | High | - | - |
| Long Jump | - | Low | High | High | High | High | High | - | - |
| 800m | High | - | Low | Low | Med | Low | - | - | High |
Speed and strength (power) are of vital importance, and so it seems reasonable to conclude that successful combined eventers must be fast and robust The predominant requirements of the pentathlete are mobility, skill, speed and explosive strength.
The long-term planning of combined events includes the planning of technique and strength conditioning. This concept is true for athletes of all ages - whereby technique is dovetailed with conditioning, but to varying degrees depending on ages.
For younger athletes (13 to 15) during the years of early training, athletes should work on the simple disciplines, ones that are more 'natural' to learn, such as sprinting, hurdling, long jump and high jump.
Later training (15 to 18 years) should include more complex events such as shot and javelin events that are more demanding.
Conditioning
Conditioning should take the form of, primarily, bodyweight circuits and running, bearing in mind young athletes will be developing a fair amount of strength, agility and endurance by merely practising the events themselves.
The Early Years
Tony is a Senior British Athletics coach with many years of experience in coaching young and senior athletes in the combined events. The following is some advice from Tony in introducing young novice athletes to the Combined Events.
A training regime for a novice multi-eventer might be two technical sessions and a running session on every training night/day e.g.
- Tuesday long jump, shot & running
- Thursday high jump, hurdles & running
- Sunday would be to concentrate on the weakest event and/or develop the new skills the athlete would need to compete in the next age group, plus a running session
Running sessions are based on 400 metres training but much less volume and athlete-specific.
The fun begins as a coach and athlete have to start fitting in weights, strength, mobility, conditioning, GCSE exams, A levels, girlfriends! etc.
The basic premise that I would work on would be to improve the weakest events first but continue to develop the other events at the same time.
Coordination training (skill work) should be done predominantly during the early years (13-18 years)
Speed, particularly running speed, can be ideally developed during the early years (13-18 years) but maximum strength training should be undertaken almost exclusively by top-level athletes.
Hard anaerobic endurance training is not appropriate for younger athletes and should be reserved for top-level athletes only.
Coaches who work with young athletes must work primarily on skills, technique and speed training. Training athletes to become stronger can take place at a later stage.
If coaches try to develop a robust young athlete and ignore developing skills and technique, then there will be an accelerated development initially followed by a 'stunted' improvement later.
If the skills and abilities are laid down at these young ages, then continued long-term improvement will ensue.
Combined event athletes must develop high levels of coordination before engaging in strength conditioning work.
Senior Athletes
For senior athletes, a very high emphasis is placed on strength conditioning, and technical work takes a subsidiary role during the winter.
Free Calculator
- Senior Combined Events points Calculator - a free Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that you can download and use on your computer. This spreadsheet addresses all the senior male/female combined indoor/outdoor events.
The scoring tables for specific boys and girls combined events (80 metres & 110 metres hurdles boys, 800 metres boys and 75 metres & 80 metres hurdles girls) are not based on a polynomial equation so a simple algorithm cannot be used to determine the points. Copy of these tables is available from Neuff Athletic Equipment.
Rules of Competition
The competition rules for this event are available from:
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- MACKENZIE, B. (2000) Pentathlon [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/pent/index.htm [Accessed