Winter Pentathlon was then an Olympic sport and Mr. Viktor Platan from Finland participated in the competition. Viktor Platan is now 96 years old and is in relatively good shape. He is suffering a little from the knee injury he did get in the demanding downhill competition in St. Moriz. During the Helsinki Winter Pentathlon the participants had the honour of talking to Mr. Platan.
The Helsinki competition was held in close to excellent weather conditions and attracted 21 athletes from four different nations. The event started with the traditional shooting with 20 air-pistol shots. After the first discipline Finlands Tero Koski led the event with the excellent score of 179.
Giant slalom in ski resort Peuramaa was the next event. All participants skiied the slope three times and the two best times counted as their result. The fastest time came from Finland’s Jouko Pakarinen who completed the slope in just 20 seconds and was over 2 seconds faster than everybody else.
The next event was cross country skiing which could be done in skating or the classic way. The track was 5.4 km and the best time was again Jouko Pakarinen who timed in at 21 minutes with the last competitor coming in 13 minutes later. At the conclusion of the event the Competition Management decided that next year the course will be on third shorter to minimise the difference between the athletes.
Fencing was a mixed competition held in the Helsinki Fencing Centre. The event was won by Dennis Bade who did won 31 out of 36 matches.
Riding was arranged in Kerava Riding School 20 km outside Helsinki. Both horses and athletes had to work hard to perform as temperatures were a freezing -5° c. All riders performed well ,and 12 riders managed maximum 1200 points. Pentathlon riding has improved dramatically in Finland on all and was well received by the spectators.
Mr. Bernard Ziganki from Austria bettered his second position last year to be crowned Men’s Champion and Eevi Bengs from Finland being Women’s Champion. The Tetrathlon was won by Tambet Kibal from Estonia
We hope welcome everybody to come and compete in next years third Winter Pentathlon on January 14-16 2011.
