Kara Grant, Pentathlete




Canadian Olympic Team Member - Athens 2004, Beijing 2008

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Events

Speaking

August 16

Greeting from London and Crystal Palace, the future site of the 2012 Olympic Games in Modern Pentathlon and the current site of the 2009 World Championships!

The women's qualification round took place Friday, August 14th. I had a good semi-final, but sadly finished just outside the qualifying positions. My fencing started slowly, but finished on a very high note with a score of 904 points. The swimming was my best of the year, but still far too slow to be competitive in this field. I began the combined event in 26th position knowing that I had an outside chance if I were to perform extremely well. The first 3 shots were smooth, but then two misses in a row set me back. I hit the last two targets, but was off slower than I had hoped by about 15 seconds.

I moved up a bit in the run and also performed better on the next 5 shots only missing one and getting through in 32 seconds. This allowed me to move up a couple of places and I caught a few more in the second kilometer run. My final 5 shots were the best with 5 consecutive hits in 23 seconds and I was off!! I ran all out for that last kilometer and moved up to 19th position, gaining ground on 18th the entire way, however it was not enough in the end and I finished about 15 seconds behind 18th position. While disappointed about missing out on the final. I'm happy with my overall fencing result and my Combined(run/shoot) performance which was a personal best by nearly 40 seconds.

Tomorrow I will compete in the new relay format which involved only 2 athletes per team. This should be a fun and exciting day here at Crystal Palace.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement!

Hi everyone!

The past couple of weeks have been very busy and exciting with several European World cups taking place in Hungary May 14-17 and in Rome May 21-24. The last couple of months have been a real challenge for me as I have been trying to balance my training and work, so these events were an important bench mark to measure my progress.

The International Pentathlon Federation has made some major changes to the pentathlon format moving forward to the next Olympic Games and in stead of 5 separate events (shoot, fence, swim, run, ride), the run and shoot are now combined in a biathlon type format where you shoot 5 shots that must hit a target (no bonus for accuracy), run 1 km and repeat 3 times for a total of 15 shots and 3 km. this has been a real challenge for many athletes and the level will continue to improve over the next couple of years. Learning how to train this new format ahs been part of the challenge as it is new for everyone.

In Hungary I started slow in the fencing, but picked it up and won 11 out 12 of the last twelve bouts which gave me an excellent fencing score. My swimming was a bit of a disappointment. The combined run shoot was an improvement over my result in Mexico, however the running portion was off. This is unusual for me as I normally have a very strong run. Unfortunately I ended up missing the final by a small margin.

I competed in the team relay on Sunday and this proved to be another excellent opportunity to compete and practice the new combined run shoot format. My running was much stronger, but the other events mediocre and the team finished 10th.

In many ways I was much more prepared by the time we got to Rome, however I was missing a bit of an edge in the fencing and this resulted in a slightly below average fence which is not a good result for me and not good news when you consider my weak swimming. I started the combined near the back of the field in a very poor position for making the final. In the end I did not advance, however I had my best combined time by over 40 seconds with good running and much more consistent shooting.

The next couple of weeks will be an important time for applying the many important things I learned over the past two weeks.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement!

Hello Everyone!

Spring has officially arrived and Kara Grant Pentathlete is coming out of hibernation!!

The fall of 2008 was a time of "rest" for me as I recovered from a great season of training and competition which included the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In many ways I had been preparing for this event for my entire life, so it took a certain amount of time to let the experience settle. A big thank you to everyone for the support and encouragement that allowed me to follow my Olympic Dream.

In September I completed my move to Mermaid, Prince Edward Island with my husband Jamie where we bought our first home, a small winterized cottage and I learned some handy-woman skills while we renovated (It seems that we couldn't live with wooden shingles on the interior of our home). The last finishing touches are awaiting quieter times as we are now neck deep in pentathlon (me), swimming (Jamie) and SportyKids Fitness, the business Jamie started last year. I have been managing the program on Prince Edward Island and was also doing some substitute teaching in my free time.

After Christmas I increased my training load in preparation for the competitive season and this proved to be very challenging in addition to the other tasks I had set out. I have reduced my teaching for the remainder of the school year so as to allow a more realistic schedule of activities. I left Thursday for my first training/competition trip of the year and I am now writing from Quebec City. Tomorrow I will compete in the Eastern Canadian Fencing Championships.

On Wednesday I fly to Mexico City for the first World Cup of the year. This will be an especially interesting trip as there have been some changes to the pentathlon format and the running and shooting events are now combined in a biathlon type format where we start with a 20m run to the shooting line, shoot 5 shots, run one kilometer, repeat for a total of 15 shots and 3 kilometers. Wish me luck!

Moving forward with the knowledge gained in Mexico, I will prepare for a longer trip in May with multiple competitions in Europe.

Stay tuned for upcoming competition results!

News from 2008