WHAT IS A PENTATHLON?

A pentathlon is a multi-event competition consisting of five events. Points from a standardized table are awarded for an athlete’s performance in each event and the points from all five events are totaled. The placing in the competition is determined by the TOTAL points of each athlete with the highest point total placing first.

In track and field the pentathlon consists of the following five events:

sprint hurdles, shotput, long jump, high jump and 600m or 800m or 1000m depending on age

Some pentathlons for older athletes often replace the high jump with the javelin and the sprint hurdles with a sprint. Also the longer distance race can be 1500m.

A throws or weight pentathlon consists of five throwing events:

hammer, shotput, discus, javelin and weight throw.

There are many other multi-event combinations but the most well known are:

The heptathlon (7 events), usually for women, and the decathlon (10 events) for men.

A non-track pentathlon that has been an Olympic event for many years is the modern pentathlon:

swimming, pistol shooting, fencing, XC running and horse back jumping

DETERMING THE POINTS

At the open (20 to 34 years) level, points are determined by taking the performance in an event and looking up that performance in a points table. The points tables for track and field have changed over the years. The IAAF maintains and updates (and tries to improve) these tables. The current world record in an event is used as a reference point and a formula for each event has been developed to calculate the points for performances less than this reference.

With the introduction of the 600m race into the pentathlon for 9, 10 and 11 year olds, points tables for these events have to be devised and will be posted when available. Also in 2010 the points tables for 14 and 15 year olds were revised to bring them in line with the tables used by Athletics Canada. These are the ones now being used instead of the older set from previous years.

Click here to see a more detailed explanation of the process.

Click here to see the current values for events in multi-event competitions.

Very often, a factor called the age grading factor, is used to compensate for the fact that athletes younger than the open category or older than the open category are physically less able attain the standards for athletes in the open category.

Age-graded value = age grading factor X actual performance.

The Age-grade value is then used when looking up the points for a given performance by a younger or older athlete. In principle, this means that one should be able to compare the points obtained by a 45 year old with that obtained by a 19 year old and decide which had the better performance in the event.

The World Association of Veteran Athletes (WAVA) has developed a set of age graded values for all track and field events from 6 year old to 100 years old.

Click here to see the table of age-graded factors (Excel format).