Pentathlon - By Olivia Mahony
As a young girl I found myself exceptionally active and constantly finding new sports and different activities to be involved in. I’ve always loved the challenge and took on practically every sports team in my prep school. However for a while I never really found “my sport”, and eventually would get bored of just doing one at a time. So when I found pentathlon, to my delight as you can imagine, it meant a chance for me to swim, run and ride altogether and on top of that, learn two new sports which were even more challenging!
Laser run in particular suited me well. As a cross country lover and hugely competitive runner, I was drawn to the technicality and excitement of a laser run competition, and my favourite part of pentathlon now still has to be the feeling of crossing the line. When I first began laser run, the challenge was the process of racing and static shooting and the number of new ways to improve, tactically, mentally and physically, which for me is what keeps me motivated and keeps me loving laser run.
What makes pentathlon so unique is how personal it becomes, and how every discipline can go either which way on competition day. Some weeks you may prefer swimming, some weeks you may prefer laser run, which to me is what makes it so exciting and so worth while. It’s so rewarding in every sense because of how diverse it is. I’ve met some incredible people, coaches and athletes through the sport and been able to experience opportunities like training abroad and competing at national level because I chose a multi-sport where I don’t have to limit myself. I constantly have areas to stretch my understanding and continue learning.
By Olivia Mahony - now lower sixth pentathlete at Milflield
