Burrows warms to Modern Pentathlon challenge

Sportsbeat's Josh Burrows and Matt Sherry are competing against each other in every Olympic sport between now and London 2012 - and the first challenge is over.

CONTRASTING FORTUNES: Unlikely Lads Josh Burrows and Matt Sherry are pushed to the limit in five different disciplines by Olympic Modern Pentathlon medallist Kate Allenby (Getty Images)

By Josh Burrows, Sportsbeat

Kate Allenby could be your mum's best friend. She is open, approachable and funny - the kind of woman you'd be happy to chat with while waiting to collect the kids from school.

But there is a very different side to this mother-of-two - a side apparent when she pulls on her fencing jacket.

‘Allenby - GBR' it reads, a blunt reminder that she has experienced life as one of the country's finest athletes.

Her sport is a wacky one.

At the 2012 Olympics, competitors will descend upon Greenwich Park, fight each other with swords, power through a 200m swim, then get on the back of a horse, allocated by lot, for a course of show jumping before finally running 3km, pausing three times to fire their air pistol at five targets from 10m.

To reach the final, they may have to repeat this course three times in a week.

The combination of hand-eye co-ordination and astounding fitness means modern pentathlon is even more of a physical and mental challenge than most Olympic sports.

This was always the intention. The sport was created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin - founder of the modern Olympic Games - and modelled on the skills of the ideal 19th century soldier. A fairly big ask for two Olympic try-hards then.

We started our session at the Bath5 modern pentathlon club with a run.

One of the coaches, Sarah, had suggested it was merely a warm-up, so she can't have been impressed when Matt gave up half-way through clutching his chest and complaining about his calves

The rest of us, including a large group of primary school children, completed the course.