The Opening Ceremony has taken place at the competition venue. The Parade of Nations was accompanied by the Palm Springs High School Marching Band who had just returned from playing in the inauguration parade for President Obama.
Dr h.c. Klaus Schormann, UIPM President, declared open the 2013 World Cup in Palm Springs, the inaugural event of the 2013 World Cup Series. President Schormann stressed the importance of the Patton legacy, fairplay and wished all competitors the best of luck.
Keynote speaker and granddaughter of General George S. Patton, Helen Patton (pictured) addressed the athletes and spectators with a speech punctuated by personal memories, anecdotes and inspirational quotes from the great American General. General Patton was the first American Pentathlete having competed in the 1912 Olympic Games
The men kick off the action on 20 February 2013. Split into 3 qualification groups, following the new rule which came into force the beginning of this year, the top 8 from each group + the next 12 athletes with the highest scores from all groups go through to Friday’s Final.
In the men’s field, the spotlight is on World #1 Aleksander Lesun and on another Russian, Ilia Frolov – winner of 2012 World Cup Final and WC#1 (held in Charlotte, NC, USA) together with Hungarian Adam Marosi and, of course, the Olympic champion David Svoboda from Czech Republic.
Competition starts at 07:55 (local time, UTC/GMT -8 hours).
For the list of challengers and to follow all the action go to http://www.pentathlon.org/2013worldcup1 for live results, updates and pictures






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