Sheila Taormina Wins Silver Medal at the Modern Pentathlon 2007 World Cup #2

Sheila Taormina (Livonia, Mich./Colorado Springs, Colo.) turned in the best performance of her modern pentathlon career today, winning the silver medal in the second World Cup stop of the season in Cairo, Egypt. Taormina posted a total of 5,512 total modern pentathlon points to reach the podium in a loaded competitive field that included the 2006 World Champion, the 2006 World Cup Finals Champion and the 2004 Olympic gold medalist. Each of the World Cup winners in 2006 also competed.

Despite a rough start in the shooting (31st place), Taormina battled throughout the day to climb the ladder. Following the fence she was in 28th place. A first place time in the swim moved her up to 18th place overall. A perfect score in the ride moved her up to 12th place and finishing first in the run moved her all the way to second place.

Rounding out the event for the U.S. Team and also posting perfect ride scores of 1,200 points were Emily Shertzer (Hershey, Penn./Colorado Springs, Colo.) in 22nd place with 5,232 total modern pentathlon points and Mickey Kelly (New York, N.Y./Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) in 25th place with 5,160 total points. Today’s women’s final concluded the event for the U.S. Team, as the three U.S. men failed to advance to tomorrow’s men’s final.

Individual event scores for Team USA are listed below:

Sheila Taormina - Silver Medal - 5512 points
• Shoot - 169 (964 points)
• Fence - 14V - 21D (736 points)
• Swim - 2:08.60 (1380 points)
• Ride - 1200 points
• Run - 10:22.70 (1232 points)
  Emily Shertzer - 22nd place - 5232 points
• Shoot - 173 (1012 points)
• Fence - 16V - 19D (784 points)
• Swim - 2:35.52 (1056 points)
• Ride - 1200 points
• Run - 10:35.53 (1180 points)
  Mickey Kelly - 25th place - 5160 points
• Shoot - 170 (976 points)
• Fence - 7V - 28D (568 points)
• Swim - 2:23.30 (1204 points)
• Ride - 1200 points
• Run - 10:27.85 (1212 points)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Modern Pentathlon, an Olympic event since 1912, encompasses the five sports of shooting, fencing, swimming, riding (equestrian) and running. Pentathletes start by shooting 20 shots with an air pistol at a distance of ten meters. The fencing competition is one touch, round-robin. Following fencing, the pentathletes take a dip in the pool to swim 200 meters freestyle. Pentathletes also compete in riding and running. Riding is equestrian show jumping consisting of clearing 15 obstacles while riding a horse drawn from a pool of competition horses. The running is a cross country race. For details please see the USA Moderen Pentathlon Website.