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Youth Olympic Games 2018: Pentathlon will take centre stage in Buenos Aires (ARG)

Tetrathlon

The Modern Pentathlon will be one of the centrepieces of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires (ARG), with all competitions taking place at the biggest of five venues – the Youth Olympic Park (YPA) – where there will also be special things happening off the field of play.

The Games are now only a matter of weeks away and excitement levels are rising among the global pentathlon community, as well as in the host country.

The anticipation will be worth it when the pentathlon event begins in a venue that will host 12 of the YOG Sports and 70 per cent of the athletes, and where organisers are expecting a flow of 20,000 spectators on weekdays and 38,000 at weekends.

Alongside the stadium and the Olympic Village, the YPA site will also feature a Sport Initiation Zone, where young people can experience the sports on the Games programme for the first time and benefit from the support of experienced instructors.

This facility will include a 600-square-metre Modern Pentathlon site where children aged six to 12 will be offered an introduction to Fencing (with plastic equipment) as well as Laser Run.

Viacheslav Malishev, UIPM Executive Board Member for Development, said: “As we approach the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, there is a high level of excitement about the competition and we hope that many new athletes will be attracted to our sport.

“The Sport Initiation Zone at the Youth Olympic Park will be part of the Games legacy for Argentina’s next generation, and this will be a great way to promote Modern Pentathlon through Fencing and Laser Run to children who may not have been exposed to UIPM Sports until now.”

Pentathlon will share the YPA facility with fencing, swimming and athletics (cross country), but for the first time at a Youth Olympic Games, the Opening Ceremony will take place outside a stadium. Instead, it will be an open-air event in downtown Buenos Aires.

The 3rd Youth Olympic Games runs from October 6-18 with three Modern Pentathlon competitions (Women’s Individual, Men’s Individual and Mixed Relay) taking place from October 12-16.

A record 31 nations will be represented by 48 competing athletes, who qualified through continental qualifying events, a global rankings system and the UIPM 2018 Under 19 Tetrathlon World Championships.

The format of the YOG competition is Tetrathlon (Swimming, Fencing and Laser-Run) and one of the unique features of the event is the International Mixed Relay, where pairs are drawn at random from different nations and given the chance to team up.

Three senior Olympians from the pentathlon world will be involved in Buenos Aires. Women’s Olympic champion Chloe Esposito will play the role of Young Change Maker in the Australia team, while Yane Marques of Brazil and Charles Fernandez of Guatemala have been appointed by the IOC as Athlete Role Models.

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