At Taunton School

In the first round of the fencing, every athlete faces every other athlete in one-on-one fencing bouts. Bouts use an electric épée with the target being the whole body, and end after one hit, though if neither athlete scores a hit within one minute the bout ends with both registering a defeat.

This is a single 200 meter freestyle swim. A time of 2 minutes 30 seconds scores 250 points; each second faster than that earns 2 points and each second slower loses 2 points.

The newest 5th discipline in the Modern Pentathlon format whereby competitors are challenged by a number of obstacles racing on foot: including monkey bars, balance beams, swinging rings and obstacles to jump over and under. Not dissimilar to ‘Ninja Warrior’ courses.

At this final event, athletes’ starting times are determined by their total scores from the first three events, so that the highest scorer starts first, and each successive athlete then starts with a delay of one second for each point by which they trail the leader.