MODERN PENTATHLON: London 2012 Olympian Chloe Esposito has launched her attack on Rio 2016 with a strong opening event, the fencing ranking round, at Youth Olympic Stadium today.

Esposito, 24, finished the ranking round in 13th position with 214 points – 48 points off competition leader Oktawia Nowacka of Poland.

Nowacka was only six points off the standing Olympic Record (268 pts) for pentathlon fencing, held by Lena Schoneborn of Germany, who is currently second.

During the 35-bout round-robin competition, Esposito claimed 19 victories and 16 defeats, some of which were double defeats where neither competitor scores.

Esposito said fencing was a weakness in her performance that she had worked hard to improve on. 

Following the London Games, where Esposito finished seventh, she and her brother, fellow Rio Olympian Max, and father and coach Daniel moved to Hungary especially to work on fencing.

“I knew there would be a day where it would just all come together and it did today and I’m just so happy it was today,” she said.

“So so happy. Last Olympics the fencing part was the worst for me so I really tried hard these last four years trying to change my fencing style and work really hard on it.

“It’s just paid off. If I got 50 per cent (wins) I was going to be happy and I got over 50 per cent so I’m just over the moon.

“I’m just really happy that it’s all paid off. For me that’s a really good result.”

The Camden-born athlete was competitive throughout the entire round, overcoming five of the 12 women who eventually finished above her including China’s Qian Chen (fifth) and Xiaonan Zhang (sixth).

This could be a crucial mental advantage leading into the second and final day of the women’s pentathlon when competitors will meet in a fencing bonus round.

A new addition to the program in Rio, the bonus round will be a progressive knock out competition with the lowest ranked opponents facing off and the winner going on to battle the next-placed athlete, continuing in reverse order.

“Tomorrow is just one touch and if you get the touch you stay on longer. Each touch you get is a second (in the final event, the combined running and shooting) so everything counts,” she said.

“I’ll go in tomorrow with sort of the same attitude as today, I’ll just give it my best.”

In the nostalgia-inducing world of victory and defeat (as opposed to wins and losses), the opening event of the modern pentathlon proved to be anything but tired.

With 35 one-minute bouts per athlete all occurring concurrently across eight piste (fields of play), there was plenty of action, jubilation from victors and frustration from those who couldn’t claim the points.

With Australian Chef de Mission and 2000 Olympics modern pentathlete Kitty Chiller watching on, Esposito revelled in the atmosphere and support from family and friends in the crowd. 

Modern pentathlon continues this afternoon with the men’s fencing ranking round when Chloe’s younger brother Max will be competing.

In the men’s competition, Chloe’s younger brother Max lined up but did not fare as well in the round-robin tournament.

Struggling to find his groove in his debut Olympic campaign, Max fought courageously as he became more comfortable with his surroundings and the high skill level of his competitors.

Finishing 29^th with 13 victories and 22 defeats, the 19year-old remained optimistic about his chances to make up ground with in the fencing bonus round and remaining four events on Saturday August 20.

“I’m pretty determined. Today there were some parts where I wasn’t in the zone… I just felt like I was just standing still,” he said.

“Then I realised nothing is going my way I might as well just be a little bit risky. I just felt like I couldn’t be myself in fencing.”

On the opening day of the pentathlon Max accumulated 178 points while competition leader, Russia’s Alexander Lesun, set a new Olympic Record with 28 victories and a total 268 points.

“It’s always a rollercoaster for me. With this being my first Olympics and the field is very high up there, it wasn’t easy today but I was happy with myself, I did some really good hits, some that were a little be annoying and some that were just my mistake,” Max said.

The women’s competition continues through to the medal tomorrow (Friday 19 August) with the 200m freestyle race up first, the fencing bonus round, riding show jumping and finally the combined event of running (3200m) and shooting.

The men’s competition will conclude on Saturday.

Candice Keller

olympics.com.au