Kim Raisner appeared to punch Saint Boy horse at the modern pentathlon at Tokyo Olympics
Annika Schleu went from 1st to 31st after her horse Saint Boy refused to jump in the modern pentathlon event at the Tokyo Olympics.
Schleu was in the lead after two of the five events — swimming and fencing — when she teamed up with the horse Saint Boy in the show jumping event. The pentathlon has a unique rule where riders are given randomly assigned horses for the event.
Saint Boy, however, paid no heed to Schleu and continued to disrupt the performance which hindered her result. The German finished fourth in Rio, was in tears as her horse Saint Boy went rogue, unable to stabilise during the event.
There was some controversy during the event as her coach Ms Rainer appeared to punch the horse out of frustration. “The EB reviewed video footage that showed Ms Raisner appearing to strike the horse Saint Boy, ridden by Annika Schleu, with her fist during the Riding discipline of the Women’s Modern Pentathlon competition,” a statement from the governing body of world pentathlon UIPM said.
“I tried but he did not want to go. I just started crying. It did not expect to make him go and that was the reason I was crying . The horse lacked confidence. But I tried my best.”
The result left Schleu with zero points from the round and she eventually finished the modern pentathlon in 31st. In all, six of the 36 competitors failed to score any points during the event.
Modern Pentathlon events
The modern pentathlon was introduced by Baron de Coubertin at the Stockholm Games in 1912, with events like pistol shooting, fencing, swimming, horse riding and running.
From 1912 to 1980, the Olympic modern pentathlon was organised over five days, with one event per day. Now, it is a one day event. Competitors score points in the first three events, which decide their starting position for the final combined event, composed of the shooting and running disciplines. The first one who successfully completes the task is the winner of the Pentahtlon.
Joseph Choong won the Olympic men’s modern pentathlon on Saturday to give Britain a double gold after Kate French won the women’s event
Fencing
The first event is fencing where the players compete against each other only in the epee format. In the modern pentathlon, the players face all other players individually in a round-robin format.
Each matches lasts for 1 minute where the players try to hit each other while following the normal fencing rules according to the organisation.
Swimming
The players move to the swimming event. The swimming event organized in modern pentathlon is a 200meter freestyle swimming where there is no restriction on players regarding their swimming style but have to continue with a style till the end of the distance.
Show Jumping
The third and next event is the show jumping where the players ride horses on a track. The athletes are provided with horses by the organizers and horses are chosen randomly. This is through a draw 20 minutes before the start of the event.
This is done to add a sense of bonding with the riders and be compatible for the entire event
Shooting and Cross Country Race
Shooting is in indoor shooting range with the help of 4.5 mm air pistol. A player has to shoot fixed targets which are located 10 meter apart. The shooters have 20 rounds to shoot. The maximum time given between each shot is 40 secs. The best 10 shots is the basis for calculation for the final count of scores.
