Russian Dmitry Svatkovsky celebrates his gold medal in the modern pentathlon after crossing the line in the three-kilometre run yesterday. Oct 01 Consistent high-scoring shots in the air pistol shooting of the inaugural women's modern pentathlon competition gave the early lead to America's Emily deRiel today. With a score of 184, just one less than deRiel, Katalin Partits, of Greece, lay in second place on 1144 pentathlon points and Florence Dinichert, of Switzerland, was in third on identical points but with one less central 10 score going into the fencing round. A strong British presence in the 3000-strong crowd at Pavillion 2 in Sydney Olympic Park gave early impetus to the current No. 1 ranked woman pentathlete, Stephanie Cook, lying in eighth position after the shoot, and compatriot Kate Allenby in 12th spot. For 70 per cent of victories 1000 pentathlon points are awarded.
More victories earn bonus points.
The action will move to the Sydney International Aquatic Centre for the third discipline, the 200-metre swim. Modern Pentathlon is based on the adventures of a Napoleonic cavalry officer whose horse is shot from under him and who must fence and shoot his way out of trouble, swim across a river and run cross-country to deliver a message to his general. This afternoon the action switches to the third and last venue, the Sydney Baseball Stadium for the showjumping and running. A capacity crown of 16,000 is expected. Find out who the main gold medal chances are.