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The Events

Five events put our athletes through their paces, testing vital sporting attributes. We record the results for each athlete then send them to the mathmos at Varsity who work out an overall SuperSports score for each competitor. The Standing Jump tests lower body strength. The Bag Throw tests upper body strength, the athletes hurling a large cylindrical tackle pad as far as they can – awkward as well as heavy. 100m sprint is designed to discover speed, whilst the Bleep Test is all about endurance. Finally, Limbo tests flexibility – and is generally just quite amusing.

Week 4: Modern Pentathlon

This is Week 4, Sport 4, of Varsity Sport’s newest competition. Each week we’re taking a male and a female competitor representing a Blues sport and putting them to the test. Five events assess specific sporting attributes: speed, strength, stamina and flexibility will all be measured.

One of the more unconventional sports willing to accept our challenge was the Modern Pentathlon. For those of you unfamiliar with the sport check out what it involves on page 30. Unlike the other sports we have featured in this competition, the Modern Pentathlon is the only one which is actually multi-disciplinary, meaning that these ‘super’ athletes should be well suited to our diverse tests.

Representing the men is Brad Dixon, while stepping forward on the women’s behalf in Hannah Darcy.  Darcy explained why she feels her sport is the most demanding, informing us that ‘In the ancient Olympic games, the winner of the pentathlon was crowned the Victor Ludorum – the overall winner of the games. In the words of Aristotle: “the most perfect sportsmen, therefore, are the pentathletes because in their bodies strength and speed are combined in beautiful harmony”.

Deep, but is it true? Apparently not in terms of strength, both athletes posting disappointing scores in the standing jump and bag throw. However, recovery came thanks to very respectable scores for both in the 100m and Bleep Test, ensuring the Modern Pentathlon scored reasonably well.

Darcy in particular showed that she is an all-round athlete, jumping into first place amongst the women competitors. Overall the Modern Pentathlon narrowly missed out on climbing into second position, finishing just behind Hockey. 

Next week it’s the turn of Boxing’s Chris Webb and Heley Matthews.