Athletics: Pentathlon

Yesterday was athletics again -- this time Mulan did her first ever pentathlon.  The results are here.

For the 80m hurdles Mulan improved from last week, getting a new PB (personal best) time of 15.36 sec against a head wind (-1.9m/s).  

Mulan had a solid long jump, getting 4.35m.  What made this jump satisfying was that the wind was only 0.5m/s (anything over 2m/s is considered wind assisted).  Mulan jumped her wind-assisted (4.5m/s) PB of 4.44m two weeks ago.

The shot put was the only event that didn't go as well as hoped, as Mulan was a bit rusty and got two no throws.  But at least she got in a legal throw of 6.80m in her second attempt.  Mulan's PB, from back in February, is 7.66m.

High jump is Mulan's least-practiced event.  While she is starting to learn the Fosbury flop, it still works best to do the scissors in competition (all the other girls in the competition did the flop).  Competing for the first time on rubber, Mulan got a new PB of 1.29m.  We got chatting with one of the officials/parents(?) after the high jump (athletics is always so welcoming and friendly!) and she was very warmly encouraging of Mulan to continue with pentathlon, and to work on her flop.  We'll definitely try to fit it in!

And finally, competing in her first 200m sprint of the season Mulan also got a new PB of 30.90 sec against a head wind (-0.7m/s).

All in all, a very satisfying day.  Mulan fitted in well with the other girls, and the day was fun, friendly and healthily competitive.  While points and places don't matter much, we were delighted that Mulan's all-rounder skills suit the pentathlon and she was competitive with the others, getting 4th overall in the under-14 girls.