Great Britain at 2008 Olympic Modern Pentathlon

Great Britain competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The United Kingdom was represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), and the team of selected athletes was officially known as Team GB. Britain is one of only five NOCs to have competed in every Summer Olympic Games since 1896. The delegation of 547 people included 311 competitors 168 men, 143 women and 236 officials. The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom including Northern Ireland whose people may elect to hold Irish citizenship and are able to be selected to represent either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympics. Additionally some British overseas territories compete separately from Britain in Olympic competition.

Great Britain's medal performance at the 2008 Summer Olympics was its best in a century; only its performance at the 1908 Summer Olympics, which Britain also hosted in London, resulted in more gold medals being awarded. The total medal count, of 47, is also the second highest Great Britain has ever achieved, with only the 1908 Games resulting in more medals.

Great Britain finished 4th overall in the medal tables, a target previously set by UK Sport, the public body responsible for distributing funding to elite sport, for the 2012 Games. UK Sport is currently considering whether to target 3rd place in the 2012 Games, which will be hosted by the United Kingdom in London.  You can buy Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets from Sport Ticket Exchange at very cheap rates. Sport Ticket Exchange offers you all Olympic Tickets including Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets in very secure, easy way at reasonable rates.

Cross Country Running at Olympic Modern Pentathlon

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically 4–12 kilometers long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road. It is both an individual and a team sport, as runners are judged on an individual basis and a points scoring method for teams. Both men and women of all ages compete in cross country, which usually takes place during autumn and winter, and can include weather conditions of rain, sleet, snow or hail, and a wide range of temperatures. Cross country running is one of the disciplines under the umbrella sport of athletics, and cross country athletes often compete in long-distance track and road running. Although open-air running competitions are pre-historic, the rules and traditions of cross country racing emerged in Britain. The English championship became the first national competition in 1876 and the International Cross Country Championships was held for the first time in 1903. Since 1973 the foremost elite competition has been the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

Because of differences between courses in running surface, frequency and tightness of turns, and amount of up and downhill, cross country strategy does not necessarily simplify to running a steady pace from start to finish. Coaches and cross country runners debate the relative merits of fast starts to get clear of the field, versus steady pacing to maximize physiological efficiency. Some teams emphasize running in a group in order to provide encouragement to others on the team, while others hold that every individual should run his or her own race.

Cross country was contested as a team and individual event at the 1904, 1912, 1920 and 1924 Summer Games. A United States team won the gold medal for cross country in the 1904 Olympics. Sweden took gold in 1912.Finland, led by Paavo Nurmi and captured the gold medal in 1920 and 1924 before the Olympics dropped cross country from its program. Cross Country running is fifth part of Olympic Modern Pentathlon. You can buy Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets from Sport Ticket Exchange at very cheap rates. Sport Ticket Exchange offers you Olympic Tickets for all Olympic sports and events especially Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets in very secure and easy way at reasonable rates.

Show Jumping at Olympic Modern Pentathlon

 Show jumping, also known as "stadium jumping," "open jumping," or "jumpers," is a member of a family of English riding equestrian events that also includes dressage, eventing, hunters, and equitation. Jumping classes commonly are seen at horse shows throughout the world, including the Olympics. Sometimes shows are limited exclusively to jumpers, sometimes jumper classes are offered in conjunction with other English style events, and sometimes show jumping is but one division of very large, all-breed competitions that include a very wide variety of disciplines. Jumping classes may be governed by various national horse show sanctioning organizations, such as the United States Equestrian Federation in the USA. International competitions are governed by the rules of the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI).

People unfamiliar with horse shows may be confused by the difference between hunter classes and jumper classes. Hunters are judged subjectively on the degree to which they meet an ideal standard of manners, style, and way of going. Conversely, jumper classes are scored objectively, based entirely on a numerical score determined only by whether the horse attempts the obstacle, clears it, and finishes the course in the allotted time. Jumper courses often are colorful, and at times, quite creatively designed. Jumper courses tend to be much more complex and technical than hunter courses, because riders and horses are not being judged on style.

Hunters have meticulous turnout and tend toward very quiet, conservative horse tack and rider attire. Hunter bits, bridles, crops, spurs, and martingales are tightly regulated. Jumpers, while caring for their horses and grooming them well, are not scored on turnout, are allowed a wider range of equipment, and riders may wear less conservative attire, so long as it stays within the rules. Formal turnout always is preferred, however, and a neat rider gives a good impression at shows.

In addition to hunters and jumpers, there are equitation classes, sometimes called hunt seat equitation, which judge the ability of the rider. The equipment, clothing, and fence styles used in equitation more closely resemble hunter classes, although the technical difficulty of the courses may more closely resemble jumping events. You can also purchase Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets from Sport Ticket Exchange at very reasonable rates. Sport Ticket Exchange offers you all Olympic Tickets especially Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets in very easy and secure way.

Fencing at Olympic Modern Pentathlon

Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons. aFencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games.

The English term fencing, in the sense of "the action or art of using the sword scientifically" (OED) dates to the late 16th century, when it denoted systems designed for the Renaissance rapier. The first known use of defens in reference to Renaissance swordsmanship is in William Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor: "Alas sir, I cannot fence." This specialized usage replaced the generic fight.

The verb to fence derived from the noun fence, originally meaning "the act of defending", etymologically derived from Old French defens "defense", ultimately from the Latin. The first attestation of Middle English fens "defense" dates to the 14th century

Dueling went into sharp decline after World War I. After World War II, dueling went out of use in Europe except for very rare exceptions. Training for duels, once fashionable for males of aristocratic backgrounds although fencing masters such as Hope suggest that many people considered themselves trained from taking only one or two lessons, all but disappeared, along with the classes themselves. Fencing continued as a sport, with tournaments and championships. However, the need to actually prepare for a duel with "sharps" vanished, changing both training and technique.

Starting with epee in 1936, side judges were replaced by an electrical scoring apparatus, with an audible tone and a red or green light indicating when a touch landed. Foil was automated in 1956, sabre in 1988. The scoring box reduced the bias in judging, and permitted more accurate scoring of faster actions, lighter touches, and more touches to the back and flank than before.

Olympic fencing refers to the fencing seen in most current competitions, including the Olympic Games and the World Cup. Competitions are conducted according to rules laid down by the FIE, the international governing body. These rules evolved from a set of conventions developed in Europe between mid 17th and early 20th century. The three Olympic weapons are foil, epee, and sabre. In competition, the validity of touches is determined by the electronic scoring apparatus and a set of rules called right of way or priority to eliminate referee error and bias. You can also purchase Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets from Sport Ticket Exchange at very reasonable rates. Sport Ticket Exchange offers you all Olympic Tickets especially Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets in very easy and secure way. You can also earn charming money with Olympic Tickets Resale at Sport Ticket Exchange.

Shooting at Olympic Modern Pentathlon

A shooting sport is a competitive sport involving tests of proficiency accuracy and speed using various types of guns such as firearms and air guns. Hunting is also a shooting sport, and indeed shooting live pigeons was an Olympic event. The shooting sports are categorized by the type of firearm or target used.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) of the United Kingdom was founded in 1860 to raise the funds for an annual national rifle meeting "for the encouragement of Volunteer Rifle Corps, and the promotion of Rifle-shooting throughout Great Britain".

For similar reasons, concerned over poor marksmanship during the American Civil War, veteran Union officers Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate formed the National Rifle Association of America in 1871 for the purpose of promoting and encouraging rifle shooting on a "scientific" basis. In 1872, with financial help from New York State, a site on Long Island, the Creed Farm, was purchased for the purpose of building a rifle range. Named Creedmoor, the range opened in 1872, and became the site of the first National Matches until New York politics forced the NRA to move the matches to Sea Girt, New Jersey. The popularity of the National Matches soon forced the event to be moved to its present, much larger location: Camp Perry. In 1903, the U.S. Congress created the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice (NBPRP), an advisory board to the Secretary of the Army, with a nearly identical charter to the NRA. The NBPRP (now known as the Civilian Marksmanship Program) also participates in the National Matches at Camp Perry.

In the Olympic Modern Pentathlon, the shooting discipline involves using a 4.5 mm air pistol in the standing position from 10 meters distance at a stationary target. Until the 2008 rules change, the format was that of the 10 meter air pistol competition: each competitor had 20 shots, with 40 seconds allowed for each shot. You can also purchase Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets from Sport Ticket Exchange at very reasonable rates. Sport Ticket Exchange offers you all sorts of Olympic Tickets including Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets in very easy and secure way.

Modern Pentathlon Format and Olympic Modern Pentathlon

Except for the fencing competition, athletes do not directly compete against one another in the five events. Instead, a better absolute performance results in a higher points score; points for each event are combined to give the overall total scores. This is similar to the procedure for the decathlon in track and field athletics.

However, an innovation was introduced to make the finale of the pentathlon more exciting. The last event is the cross-country run. Competitors are ranked according to their score from the first four disciplines and given different start times, with the leader going first, and other starts staggered by points differential such that the first person to cross the finish line will be the overall points leader and win the pentathlon. This method of finishing the competition would also eventually find use in winter events; the Gunderson method details a means by which a similar finish is achieved in the Nordic combined.

The fencing discipline uses the epee. The competition is a round-robin, meaning each competitor will face all the other competitors once. Each match lasts up to one minute; the first fencer to score a hit wins instantly. If neither scores within one minute, both lose the match. The swimming discipline is a 200 m freestyle race. Until the 2000 Olympics, the distance was 300 meters. Competitors are seeded in heats according to their fastest time over the distance. The riding discipline involves show jumping over a 350–450 m course with 12 to 15 obstacles. Competitors are paired with horses in a draw 20 minutes before the start of the event.

The shooting discipline involves using a 4.5 mm air pistol in the standing position from 10 meters distance at a stationary target. Until the 2008 rules change, the format was that of the 10 meter air pistol competition: each competitor had 20 shots, with 40 seconds allowed for each shot.

Beginning with the Rancho Mirage World Cup, the pistols have changed to a laser instead of an actual projectile. There is a slight delay between the trigger pull and the laser firing, simulating the time it would take for a pellet to clear the muzzle.

The running discipline involves a 3 km cross country race. Until the 2000 Olympics, the distance was 4000 meters. If you want to watch this event of charm and enjoyment, you can buy Olympic Modern Pentathlon Tickets from Sport Ticket Exchange. Sport Ticket Exchange offers you all types of Olympic Tickets especially Modern Pentathlon Tickets at very cheap rates.