Czech modern pentathloners do not like the fact that their sport should lose its course. The Olympic champion from London, David Svoboda, said that this was nonsense, and according to him, the competitors will ask in an open letter for the resignation of the current management.
The International Union of Modern Pentathlon (UIPM) on Thursday after a meeting of the executive committee confirmed the shocking news that starting with the Olympic cycle culminating in Los Angeles in 2028, show jumping will be dropped from the sport’s program. A new discipline has yet to be decided.
“It’s nonsense. Nobody understands it, at least from my surroundings,” the current youth coach Svoboda said on the website of the Dukla Army Sports Center.
He added for ČTK that an initiative of pentathlete around the world was created. “Top active and former competitors, coaches who have come together and have had enough. We will openly demand the resignation of the current union leadership, because there is no time to compromise. We want to save the pentathlon in the current lineup pentathlete by this lordship. “
The fifth man from this year’s games in Tokyo, Martin Vlach, thinks that without parkour it would no longer be a modern pentathlon. “It will be just a combination of five disciplines,” Vlach said in a press release.
The 2016 European champion Jan Kuf, who is currently preparing for the new season in the USA, has horseback riding over obstacles for the most beautiful discipline of modern pentathlon in addition to fencing, swimming and running associated with shooting.
“He makes pentathlon such a beautiful and interesting sport. And now they take it that way, as if it hadn’t froze,” Kuf told iSport.cz. “It seems crazy to me that they can do this. At the moment, I see it and other five-year-old pentathlons in Paris just quitting.”
Leading the world federation forever
Svoboda has long criticized the UIPM leadership. “There have been the same people for thirty years. So President Klaus Schormann was only twenty-eight. I never liked him. There were problems between us. I was loudly criticizing his steps when I was still actively racing,” Svoboda said.
According to Svoboda, it is necessary to act quickly so that the pentathlon does not lose the next generation of competitors. “Either we force them to resign, we are busy with it, and if we fail to do so, one of the extreme options is to establish a new union of pentathlon, which will defend the interests of pentathlon,” Svoboda said. But he himself cannot imagine that he would be an official. “If only absolutely necessary,” he said.
The Czech Association of Modern Pentathlon was also embarrassed by the UIPM leadership. He criticizes the way in which the decision to eliminate parkour was made. “Without any discussion with the national federations,” the union said in a statement.
“In general, we do not oppose changes that may contribute to the further development of our sport. However, we do not consider the content of equestrian discipline to be a fundamental handicap of modern pentathlon, but above all The situation is only the result of a long-term problem, “said the management of the Czech association.
The pentathlon has undergone changes in almost every Olympic cycle lately. It was a long day for five days, from Atlanta in 1996 it was compressed to one day, and in Athens in 2004 Libor Capalini won bronze in it.
In 2009, there was a combination of running and shooting from a pistol, which was also replaced by a laser weapon. Currently, fencing takes place the day before and the next day there is a bonus round and the remaining disciplines on the program.
At the next games in Paris, athletes should be able to swim, fencing, show jumping and combined running with shooting in a new format in just 90 minutes and in a knockout fashion within three days.
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