UIPM has put together a Paralympic Pentathlon (also known as Para-pentathlon) Working Group to engage the wider Paralympic sporting community and the international audience in taking up the sport of Modern Pentathlon also in the very specific and challenging field of disabilities.
The aim is to make para-pentathlon a key part of the UIPM Development Programme and strengthen the relations with the International Paralympic Committees at both National and International level thanks to the crucial support of the National Olympics and Paralympics Associations, the Modern Pentathlon National Federations and any internal and external stakeholder interested in the promotion and valorisation of our sport movement.
The Para-pentathlon working group aims for uniting well known modern pentathlon experts, having a very balanced distribution at continental level that can be key for the support granted to each UIPM Confederations as well as bridging together the international sport movement, the modern pentathlon family and the diversity that underpins the athletes of the future.
Vision
To make Modern Pentathlon with all its disciplines (and sub-sports) more accessible to all, irrespective of gender, age or ethnic background, also at Paralympic level. Moreover the vision is to provide a therapeutic multidisciplinary approach for disabled people, becoming a valid base on which formulating a wise proposal addressed to disabled persons in both physiological and analytical patterns.
Mission
To formulate a wise model for Modern Pentathlon for physically impaired individuals that allows a broad spectrum of participants in the framework of the Paralympic Movement that can become the basis for a complete multidisciplinary approach for all impaired conditions regardless of the injuries occurred and easily to represent the UIPM within the IPC Family as well.
UIPM Para-Sports in 2023
2023 was a busy year for the Para Pentathlon Commission and more generally the Para movement. There was an increase in the number of para athletes and countries competing, a move up towards 70 para athletes in the UIPM Para Athlete Licence system and a number of events run by National Federations.
The Flagship UIPM 2023 Laser Run World Championships in Bath (GBR) included two Para heats with athletes from Great Britain, France and Egypt. There was an increase in participating athletes from the previous year in Lisbon (POR) and the event was broadcast live for the first time on UIPM TV.
The UK Para Pentathlon Commission became well and truly established and the country of two Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions moved to the forefront of para athlete development. It was anticipated that growth would continue into 2024 with 40 para athletes confirmed for a first quarter training camp. This camp would also offer on-site classification opportunity.
In November 2023 the UIPM 2023 Biathle-Triathle World Championships were held in Bali (INA) with para athletes attending for the first time. There was one heat with a mix of classification classes for both Biathle and Triathle. The energy and crowd support was incredible and the athletes from Egypt and New Zealand had an amazing time!
Work was also undertaken to further cement UIPM as a Recognized International Federation (RIF) with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The Para Pentathlon Commission Chair, Andrew Collings, attending the IPC General Assembly in Bahrain and enjoyed several days of meetings and connecting with relevant IPC staff and relevant National Paralympic Committees from around the world.
Behind the scenes there was also great work undertaken in the classification, guidelines and rules space, and as heading into 2024 guidelines for Para Laser Run and Para Biathle-Triathle were being finalised, along with competition rules for Para Tetrathlon.
Aligned with the direction of the governing body, the Para Pentathlon Commission sought to integrate fully with World Obstacle. The Commission met with John De Haan, Chair of the FISO Adaptive-Athlete Commission, and created an ongoing agreement and dialogue to continue integration.
The Para Pentathlon Commission met multiple times throughout the year, worked with several National Federations and updated a range of supporting documents. The team ended the year looking forward to an even more productive and successful 2024!
UIPM Para-Sports in 2022
In 2022 a new Para Pentathlon Commission was appointed by the UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann.
The Commission included Andrew Collings as Chair and Radka Zapletalova as Coordinator along with key classifier and guideline para experts from around the world.
The team got to work by first seeking to understand how many para athletes there were and how many National Federations were active in the space, followed by the analysis of existing supporting documentation. From here the team worked to develop a new para strategy with an overarching goal of being included in future Paralympic Games sporting programmes.
With support of the Local Organising Committee, the team introduced a Para Athlete competition at the UIPM 2022 World Laser Run Championships in Lisbon (POR). The event included athletes from Egypt, France, New Zealand and Portugal and across all classifications.
UIPM was represented by Ms Zapletalova at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) General Assembly and Membership gathering in Berlin (GER), where important further steps and changes were presented.
Several NFs ran para competitions throughout the year, and the Commission put the grassroots in place to help facilitate future NF growth in this space.
UIPM has also established a new Para Athlete License System as a starting point for the future development of the Ranking system and classification master lists.
The Commission met on a quarterly basis throughout the year.
UIPM Para-Sports in 2020-2021
Activity of UIPM Para-Sport commission and entire sport movement has been affected by COVID-19 pandemics. Many of events have been postponed and further cancelled , travel possibilities have been diminished.
Commission and some of National federations have continued their effort to embrace Paralympic athletes into UIPM Family.
Another demonstration event took place during UIPM 2021 Laser Run World Championships Cairo (Egypt), where athletes competed in 3 different classes.
Opportunity to compete in Para-Biathle and Para-triathle was offered by organizers of UIPM 2021 Biathle/triathle World Championships Weiden (Germany).
UIPM Para-Sports in 2019
At the beginning of year 2019 UIPM Classification team receives the official request of approval for athlete Brian Douglas – 15year old athlete with previous experience with Para Swimming events who was interested to start to work with US Modern Pentathlon association and train/compete together with able bodied athletes. After analysis of the case, UIPM approves the request and opens the door to any other athlete with similar request.
UIPM Para sport commission together with UIPM Development department continues efforts to use channels of UIPM GLRCT for further communication and involvement of National federations in Project
Para Laser Run events have been organized in Egypt, USA, Russia and France.
UIPM Para-Sport visual has been implemented.
UIPM Para-Sports in 2018
After detailed Analysis of the feedback received from IPC about the classification document (UIPM Para Sport regulations) UIPM started the work on new system in coordination with UIPM Development department. Para-sport test events have been included to several GLRCT competitions, demonstrating this could be the way to introduce UIPM Para-Sport to large community.
In March 2018 Mr.Paul Baudet has been appointed a Head of classification with the aim to restructure UIPM Classification , offering 5 disability classes. The document can be accessed here.
Para Laser Run events have been organized in several countries – Egypt, France, Ukraine , Spain, Cuba and Colombia. A demonstration event has been also included to UIPM Laser Run World Championship.
Para Triathle in format Swimming-Fencing-Running was organized in Canada in class LR 5.
UIPM Para-Sports in 2017
UIPM’s Para-Pentathlon Working Group and Para-Pentathlon Commission have been analyzing technical and classification requirements of five UIPM Sports – Laser Run , Biathle, Triathle, Tetrathlon and Modern Pentathlon – with the aim of establishing a development strategy for UIPM Para-Sports.
This development will be linked with closely with development of the technical equipment needed and used by different disability classes and UIPM itself – by means of the Para-Pentathlon Commission – will start its own research activities.
In 2017, UIPM Congress adopted the UIPM Para-Sport Regulations 2017. The document covers general classification rules and procedures and defines sport classes. The first sport UIPM will introduce is Para Laser Run and the first class to be introduced at elite level is LR1 (standing category including lower-limb amputees and athletes with disabilities having a similar impact on performance).
In late 2017, UIPM launched a recruitment drive for national and international classifiers and started to build a network for future classification events.
Para Laser-Run pilot events in 2018 are being considered by a number of Local Organizing Committees (LOCs) of Laser Run City Tour. UIPM will test the proposed classifications, rules and potential challenges LOCs might face when participating in the project. At the same time, UIPM wishes to offer, in partnership with national Paralympic committees, an opportunity to introduce the new sporting adventure of UIPM Para Laser-Run to the para-sport community.
The vision of the Para-Pentathlon Commission is to enlarge the number of classes on the horizon for future seasons. Simultaneously the group is also working on the next step of classification requirements for Para Triathle events.
