Modern pentathlon at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's team

DatesNovember 23–28Competitors36 from 12 nationsMedalists
1st place, gold medalist(s)
  • Igor Novikov
  • Ivan Deryugin
  • Aleksandr Tarasov
 Soviet Union
2nd place, silver medalist(s)
  • William Andre
  • Jack Daniels
  • George Lambert
 United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)
 Finland
← 1952
1960 →
  • v
  • t
  • e

The men's team modern pentathlon was an event contested at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.[1] It was the second appearance of the team modern pentathlon event. The team event used scores from the individual event except that fencing scores were recomputed to account for only team event competitors.

Competition format

The modern pentathlon consisted of five events. The competition dropped the point-for-place system used in previous Games. The 1956 competition introduced a scoring system in which each the results of each event was converted to a score, with a par value of 1,000 in each event, and higher scores were desirable.[2] For the team competition, the scores of the three individual team members were summed.

  • Riding: a show jumping competition. The course was 5000 m long, with a time limit of 10 minutes. Riders started with 1000 points; gaining or losing 2.5 points for every second under or over the time limit. They could also lose points through obstacle faults. Negative scores were not possible; the lowest score was 0.
  • Fencing: a round-robin, one-touch épée competition. The par score of 1000 points was awarded for winning 75% of the fencer's matches. Each victory above or below that number adjusted the score.
  • Shooting: a rapid fire pistol competition, with 20 shots (each scoring up to 10 points) per competitor. A target score of 195 would give 1000 points; every target point above or below that resulted in a 20-point adjustment.
  • Swimming: a 300 m freestyle swimming competition. The par time was 4 minutes, with every second above or below adjusting the score by 5 points.
  • Running: a 4 km race. The par time was 15 minutes, with every second above or below adjusting the score by 3 points.

Results

Rank Nation Athletes Riding Fencing Shooting Swimming Running Total
1st place, gold medalist(s)  Soviet Union Igor Novikov 802.5 752 920 985 1192 4651.5
Aleksandr Tarasov 810.0 876 880 825 1186 4577.0
Ivan Deriuhin 845.0 566 780 1070 1201 4462.0
Total 2457.5 2194 2580 2880 3579 13,690.5
2nd place, silver medalist(s)  United States George Lambert 1070.0 814 900 975 1081 4840.0
William Andre 887.5 752 860 870 1123 4492.5
Jack Daniels 1062.5 442 800 935 910 4149.5
Total 3020.0 2008 2560 2780 3114 13,482.0
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)  Finland Ole Mannonen 997.5 752 880 920 1162 4711.5
Wäinö Korhonen 885.0 814 880 905 1117 4601.0
Berndt Katter 630.0 442 760 930 1111 3873.0
Total 2512.5 2008 2520 2755 3390 13,185.5
4  Hungary Gábor Benedek 860.0 876 920 855 1126 4637.0
János Bódy 772.5 752 820 795 1099 4238.5
Antal Moldrich 95.0 938 720 1010 916 3679.0
Total 1727.5 2566 2460 2660 3141 12,554.5
5  Mexico José Pérez 937.5 690 800 940 712 4079.5
Antonio Almada 395.0 814 960 935 622 3726.0
David Romero 367.5 504 800 765 739 3175.5
Total 1700.0 2008 2560 2640 2073 10,981.0
6  Romania Cornel Vena 442.5 1062 740 750 1030 4024.5
Dumitru Țintea 717.5 380 780 815 718 3410.5
Victor Teodorescu 0.0 752 640 630 1156 3178.0
Total 1160.0 2194 2160 2195 2904 10,613.0
7  Great Britain Donald Cobley 315.0 442 560 810 1255 3382.0
Thomas Hudson 20.0 504 440 990 1180 3134.0
George Norman 0.0 628 340 760 982 2710.0
Total 335.0 1574 1340 2560 3417 9,226.0
8  Australia Neville Sayers 925.0 442 820 540 1024 3751.0
Sven Coomer 135.0 380 720 1015 751 3001.0
George Nicoll 0.0 442 500 665 466 2073.0
Total 1060.0 1264 2040 2220 2241 8,825.0
 Sweden Lars Hall 1035.0 889* 720 1030 1159 4833.0*
Bertil Haase 515.0 667* 700 830 1216 3928.0*
Björn Thofelt 0.0 Did not finish 0.0
Total 1550.0 1556* 1420 1860 2375 8,761.0*
 Chile Gerardo Cortes, Sr. 882.5 556* 620 740 1051 3849.5*
Nilo Floody 585.0 704* 760 660 793 3502.0*
Héctor Carmona Abandoned Did not finish 0.0
Total 1467.5 1260* 1380 1400 1844 7,351.5*
 Brazil Salvio Lemos 455.0 556* 760 785 730 3286.0*
Wenceslau Malta 0.0 741* 760 755 877 3133.0*
Nilo da Silva 17.5 Did not finish 0.0
Total 472.5 1297* 1520 1540 1607 6,419.0*
 South Africa Okkie van Greunen 195.0 704* 780 780 943 3402.0*
Harry Schmidt 0.0 445* 0 460 661 1566.0*
Marthinus du Plessis Abandoned Did not finish 0.0
Total 195.0 1149* 780 1240 1604 4,968.0*

Unadjusted scores from the individual competition are shown with a "*".

References

  1. ^ "Modern pentathlon at 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Men's Team". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 2020-04-17. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
  2. ^ Official Report, p. 513.