Previewing USA Pentathlon in 2014

By Genadijus Sokolovas, High Performance Director for USA Pentathlon

After a successful 2013 season, USA Pentathlon is looking forward to an even busier competition schedule in 2014. Predictably, new athletes join the sport of Pentathlon after the Olympic Games, and 2013 wasn’t an exception. Many swimmers attended our Olympic Development Camps to learn about this great sport.

Two talented swimmers joined the Pentathlon Resident Team in 2013, which is located at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Grace Kittle (25) from Dallas, TX and Logan Storie (24) from Corvallis, OR., began training with the Resident Team this year. Grace was swimming collegiately for the University of Denver and as a post grad for University of Arizona. Logan swam collegiately for the University of Florida. Both athletes had experience in three of the five disciplines and a great amount of talent for pentathlon–allowing them to qualify for the 2013 World Championships team in their first year of training.

Review of 2013
Our top pentathletes competed well at international competitions in 2013. These included, four World Cups, the World Cup Final and three World Championships (Youth, Junior, and Senior). The best US pentathlete, Margaux Isaksen (22 ), from Fayetteville, AR., had her career-best season in 2013. She won two major international events in 2013: the World Cup in Rio de Janeiro in March and the Champion of Champions in Doha, Qatar in October. She finished in 8th place at the Senior World Championships in Taiwan following a disappointing shoot. The two top US male pentathletes in 2012 were Olympian Dennis Bowsher (30 ) from Dallas, TX and Nathan Schrimsher (21) from Roswell, NM. Both athletes qualified for finals at the Senior World Championships. Other athletes who represented team U.S.A. at the 2013 Senior Pentathlon World Championships included Isabella Isaksen (20) from Fayetteville, AR, Samantha Achterberg (21) from Denver, CO, Grace Kittle, Will Brady (28) from Detroit, MI, and Logan Storie.

Team USA also participated at other major international events in 2013, such as the Youth World Championships (age 18 and under) in China, Junior World Championships (age 21 and under), North and South American Championships (Youth division in Havana, Cuba, and Senior division in Santiago, Chile), US National Championships in Colorado Springs, and many other domestic and international competitions.

In 2013, Youth division athletes began qualifications competitions for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, which will be held in Nanjing, China. The first Youth Olympic Games Qualifier was held in Acapulco, Mexico. Brendan Anderson (17) from Colorado Springs, CO was the top US finisher at the first Qualifier. Currently, he is leading team U.S.A. for 2014 Youth Olympics.

There are many opportunities to join the action in Pentathlon in 2014. We have domestic and international pentathlon events throughout the year.

The calendar is posted on our website:
http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Modern-Pentathlon/Events

USA Pentathlon is hosting 7 Olympic Development Camps (ODC) for athletes of all abilities at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado:
ODC #1 January 9-13, 2014
ODC #2 January 23-27, 2014
ODC #3 March 20-23, 2014
ODC #4 June 4-9, 2014
ODC #5 September 24-28, 2014
ODC #6 October 16-20, 2014
ODC #7 November 12-16, 2014

Olympic Development Camps are designed for any age athletes who would like to learn more about the sport of Modern Pentathlon. Swimmers who are good runners are welcome to these camps. Our experienced coaches are teaching skills in the pentathlon events: fencing, shooting, swimming, and running with an introduction to riding. Over the last few years, the Olympic Development Camps have become very popular. As result, more pentathletes from US and other countries are joining these camps and training opportunities. For athletes who need a little help, USA Pentathlon has some scholarships available for US athletes to participate at the camps.

If you are interested in applying, please email or call to Dr. Genadijus Sokolovas, High Performance Director for USA Pentathlon:
Emails: Genadijus.Sokolovas@usoc.org or gsokolovas@gmail.com
Tel.: 719-321-6975

Regional Competitions
In 2014, USA Pentathlon will hold a number of Regional competitions for Youth (18 and under), Junior (21 and under), and Seniors (22 and older) to qualify for the National Championships. Regional competitions give athletes ranking points which are important to qualify for various international events. Pentathlon Regional competitions currently scheduled in 2014:
Florida Regional in Ocala, FL, February, 2014 (days TBC)
Colorado Regional #1 in Colorado Springs, CO, March 7-10, 2014
Colorado Regional #2 in Colorado Springs, CO, March 20-24, 2014
Texas Regional in San Antonio, TX, March 29-30, 2014
Great Prairie Pentathlon Regional in River Falls, WI, April 5, 2014
New Mexico Regional in Roswell, NM, April 26, 2014
West Coast Pentathlon Regional, CA, May 3, 2014
Ohio Regional in Cleveland, OH, June 14, 2014
New York Athletic Club Regional in New York, NY, dates TBC
Mid-Atlantic Regional in Baltimore, MD, dates TBC
Sacramento Regional in Sacramento, CA, dates TBC
Up-State-New York Regional in Rochester, NY, dates TBC

For elite level athletes, the USA Pentathlon World Championships Team Selection Systems for Youth, Juniors, and Seniors are posted on the website:
http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Modern-Pentathlon/Resources-and-Results/Rankings-and-Selection-Procedures

2014 US National Championships
The 2014 USA Pentathlon National Championships will be held at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs. There will be a training camp at the OTC before the National Championships. These are dates of the US Nationals and training camps:
Junior/Senior Training Camp, June 21-26, 2014
Junior/Senior National Championships, June 27-30, 2014
Youth Training Camp, June 30 — July 3, 2014
Youth National Championships, July 4-7, 2014
USA National Championships are the last qualifying events to select US teams for international competitions.

Biathle Competitions
Biathle is an event of Modern Pentathlon and consists of running and swimming. Organized outdoors, the format is, run, swim, and run with continuous transitions. The distances for Seniors (22 and older) are 1500 m run, 200 m swim, and 1500 m run. USA Pentathlon will host several Regional Biathle competitions to select the National Team for the 2014 Biathle World Championships, which will be held at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala on October 3-5, 2014:
Biathle Regional in Chula Vista, CA, April 4-7, 2014
Biathle Regional in Colorado Springs, CO, June 27-29, 2014
Biathle National Championships in Colorado Springs, CO, September 25-29, 2014
Others TBC

International Competitions
USA Pentathlon will host two important international competitions in 2014:
Youth Olympic Games International Qualifier in Colorado Springs, CO, April 11-14, 2014
The Senior World Cup Final in Sarasota, FL, June 6-8, 2014

US National teams (Youth, Junior, and Senior) will participate at many other international events in 2014, such as the Youth World Championships in Hungary, the Junior World Championships in Poland, the Senior World Championships in Poland, the Youth Olympic Games in China, four World Cups (Mexico, Egypt, China, and Hungary), Pan American and North/South American Championships in Mexico.

Please, visit the USA Pentathlon website to learn more about these international events and how you can get involved with this exciting sport:
www.usapentathlon.org

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