Modern Pentathlon comprises five different disciplines: the sports include swimming, fencing, show jumping, shooting, and running. All the Pentathlon Ireland athletes right now are gearing up towards the Olympics in Greece in 2024. The Irish Pentathlon athletes are enjoying a decent time at all levels in 2023. The Under 19s in the boy’s department just won bronze in the Leira trophy. If we want to find some betting value ahead of big events like the Olympics it can pay to follow sites like Pentathlon Ireland to see how the Pentathletes are progressing.
Star athlete for the Irish Pentathlon side, Sive Brassil, may be one to watch following a silver medal in Paris. Herself and Hanna D ’Aughton finished 6th and 18th respectively at the recent German Championships to provide more fuel for the fire. Pentathlete Isobel Radford-Dodd recently became the 2023 Women’s Epee Irish National Champion and could be a competitor to watch out for in any upcoming fencing events.
What disciplines make up a Pentathlon?
Let’s look at some of the different disciplines for Pentathletes. Running and shooting are combined into the one event. Individuals will accrue points for completing each of the disciplines, usually 250-300 points as the average.
- Show Jumping - Show jumping is where the pentathletes are assigned a horse randomly and they must complete circuits, jumping fences Equestrianism style. Points will be deducted for bad jumps and poor times.
- Swimming consists of the 200-metre freestyle variant where competitors can lose or gain points for every second that they finish outside the average of all competitor’s times, which is 2 minutes and thirty seconds.
- Fencing consists of two rounds each per athlete. Competitors accrue more points for each victory. If the timer runs down and no hits have been scored it goes down as a loss for both competitors.
- Shooting and running are the last leg of the Pentathlon where the Pentathletes are given a starting position based on points accrued in the events they participated in so far. Athletes run 3200 meters in total but must stop four times to shoot targets with a laser pistol. They must hit the target five times unless 50 seconds elapse, in which case they can carry on, but they’ll have lost progress on the field.
Where do we find betting value in obscure markets like Pentathlon?
Ireland Pentathlete Natalya Coyle was left devastated after her horse failed to obey directions in the 2021 Olympics, so this is just another variable to be considered when betting on the Pentathlon. Horses are randomly drawn and assigned to the Pentathletes. We can bet on the individual legs of the Pentathlon and the now 32-year-old Natalya would have been expected to go well. It may be a ploy to take on the favourites in each different discipline and try to source a bit of value.
Bookmakers don’t pay much attention to obscure sports like swimming and fencing, especially if there are no readily available stats and data. This is why it can be a great strategy to look for value on markets like the Pentathlon at big events like the Olympics or World Athletics. In Athletics and other sports at the Olympics we can find what we call plus EV markets, as I demonstrated in a chapter in my recent book Hypnotised by Numbers, describing how to take advantage of obscure Olympics markets like Pentathlon.
There will usually be strong favourites in the outright Pentathlon markets in big events like the Olympics when all the best athletes congregate together but if you do good research, you might be able to spot some good value in various markets offered by the Irish bookmakers like PaddyPower and Boylesports. Ultimately, final placement in the overall modern pentathlon is determined by order across the finish line.