The rules of those sports apply with minor variations relating to distances and times of bouts, while disqualification is rare for many infringements, which instead carry a points penalty. Points awarded for the first four disciplines determine the starting order for the final event, the 3,000 metres run, in which the leading athlete starts the race first, with subsequent athletes starting according to their point scores, as in a handicap race, so that viewers can see the medal winners as they cross the line at the end of the run, as opposed to events such as the decathlon, in which a runner can end the final event first but not even win a medal. Scores, out of a maximum of 200, are translated into competition points on an international table that values a 172 score as 1,000 points. Each target score is worth 12 table points, so 173 equals 1,012.
Bouts last only one minute and the winner is the fighter who scores the first hit in that time.
If neither score a hit, both lose, there being no time to argue in a one-day event. If competitors score hits within .04 of a second of each other, neither counts. For 1,000 competition points, an athlete must win 70 per cent of his of her bouts. A time of 2min 30sec for men and 2min 40sec for women, very slow in the world of pure swimming, count for 1,000 points. Every tenth of a second above or below those times equals a point either way.