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In every discipline in modern pentathlon the competitors get points. The athlete with the highest accumulated score after five disciplines wins. Do you want to see how the calculation of points works in the different sports? Click on the links or play around yourself with my interactive point calculator below.

Shooting points

20 shots on a ten-ringed target can give maximum 200 shooting points. 172 shooting points is equal to 1000 pentathlon points. Every shooting point is worth +/-12 pentathlon points.
Ex. 174 shooting points = 1024 pentathlon points.

Fencing points

70 % victories (one match = one bout, every athlete fence everyone else once) are worth 1000 points.
New rules from year 2002: How much each victory above or below 70 % is worth depends on how many competitors there are. The most common are:
22-23 matches gives +/- 40 points
24-26 matches gives +/- 36 points
27-29 matches gives +/- 32 points
30-33 matches gives +/- 28 points
34-39 matches gives +/- 24 points
Ex. 32 competitors (= the number of people in the final) mean that there are 31 matches for each athlete. 70 % of 31 are 22. 20 victories are therefore worth 944 points.

Swimming points

All persons above 15 years old swim the same distance: 200 metres free-style. The time to get 1000 points for men is 2 minutes 30 seconds and for women 2 minutes 40 seconds.
Every 0.33 second is worth 4 points.
Ex. The time 2 minutes 32.8 seconds corresponds to 968 points for men and 1088 points for women.

Riding points

Show jumping with 9 obstacles (12 jumps as one double and one triple has to be among the obstacles). Speed 350 metres/minute. The maximum height is 120 centimetres. The lot chooses the horses and the athletes have 20 minutes for warming up before the competition.
New rules from year 2002: A fault free ride within "the standard time" ( 1 min - 1.17 min) is worth 1200 points. For each mistake the rider loose points:
Every knock down gives 28 points deduction.
Every refusal or disobedience to jump gives 40 p. But any disobedience leading to the knocking down of an obstacle gives 60 p deduction. After two refusals to jump the rider must try to jump the next obstacle. For every not jumped obstacle the athlete loose 80 p.
A fall of the rider from the horse or both fall gives 40 p. After two falls the riding will be terminated and the rider will have a further 300 p deduction.
Every second above the standard time gives 4 p in deduction. The maximum time is the standard time + 60 s. If the ride is slower than the maximum time the riding is terminated and the rider gives minus 240 p and also a deduction of 80 p for each obstacle he didn't jump.
More deductions can gets if the rider for example jump the course in wrong order or for a false start.

Exempel 1: The athlete rides 20 seconds above the standard time, has three knock downs and succeeds to make all the obstacles. The points will be (1200-20*4-3*28=) 1036.
Exempel 2: The athlete has two refusals on the same obstacle (must try to jump the next obstacle) and one disobedience leading to a knocking down of an obstacle. The athlete has 4 knock downs and he exceeds the time limit before the last obstacle. The points will be (1200-2*40-60-4*28-240-60*4-80=) 388 p.

Running points

All persons above 15 years old run the same distance: 3000 metres cross-country with chase-start. The time 10 minutes for men and 11 minutes 20 seconds is worth 1000 points. Every whole second is worth 4 points.
Ex. The time 10 minutes 40.8 seconds is worth 840 points for men and 1160 points for women.

How does the point calculator above works?

The point calculator calculates the pentathlon points given the results in each discipline results, for example swimming time, or the result given the points (it can calculate in both directions!). The fields to the left (the result fields) has higher priority than the point fields to the right, thus if you have written in both fields it will calculate the points based on the written results. If you can't see the point calculator the reason can be that your web browser doesn't accept Java-applets. Change the browser's settings or get a new one, for example Internet Explorer 5.

• Fill in the fields with integers. Only the seconds accept numbers with decimals, for example 24.8.
• Chose if it is a competition for men or women.
• Fill in number of competitors (32 is number of athletes in a final in modern pentathlon).
• Fill in the shooting result (between 0 and 200) or the points (between 0 and 1336). If you write a pentathlon point that don't exist for example 1017 (1012=173 and 1024=174), the program will round it upward and the correct results is shown in the fields (173 and 1012).
• Fill in the number of victories in the fencing (between 0 and 31, for 32 competitors) or the points (greater than 0). The program will round the points so it adjusts to the number of competitors (that you have to fill in first!).
• Fill in the riding points (between 0 and 1200) directly in the right point field to the right.
• To get the swimming points fill in minutes (integer>0) and/or seconds in the two different fields. To get the swimming time fill in the points (between 0 and 2799) to the right. One second is equal to 12 points.
• The running is like the swimming but the points are in the interval 0 to 3400. One whole second corresponds to 4 points.
• Click on the button "Calculate" to get the discipline results/-points and the total score. Click on "Clear" to clear the fields.