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Pentathlon champ enjoys the diversity of his sport

Bob Noble is now an international pentathlon champ
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Bob Noble won the World Masters Modern Pentathlon Championships in Prague, Czech Republic, earlier this month. The retired flight paramedic has been training and competing in events for the last 35 years.

Bob Noble has difficulty focusing on just one sport.

He started out as a competitive swimmer but quickly took up running, eventually winning the 3,000 m race during the 1976 high school provincial track and field championship.

However, even two sports were not enough to keep Noble occupied.

During the Summer Olympics in Montreal, he said he finally found his calling when watching athletes compete in the pentathlon event, which features running and swimming along with pistol shooting, horseback riding and fencing.

“I had the run-swim down,” he said. “I just had to pick up the technical aspects.”

They are skills Noble has been working to perfect ever since. His hard work paid off earlier this month when he won an international title during the World Masters Modern Pentathlon Championship in Prague, Czech Republic, beating out 50 other competitors in his age class. 

And while he may have started out as a swimmer and a runner, Noble credits his pistol shooting abilities as the reason why he bested the competition at the worlds.

“My shooting was good,” he said. “That is the reason why I won the competition. Every time I would go into the shoot, I would be out way ahead of them.”

Noble has been competing in events since the 1970s. 

He was a member of the national junior and senior teams for several years and has gotten to know many of his rivals in the small community of pentathletes. 

However, even with his win in Prague, the retired flight paramedic said there are some areas of his performance that he could improve upon. 

“Even after this, I know there are parts of this event where I could have done better,” he said. “I try to improve on each event.”

Noble will get his chance to improve this week when he competes in the national championship in Montreal, the city that hosted the Olympics that inspired him to take up the sport. He is also considering heading to an event in Portugal later this year.

Pentathlon is a fun way to stay in shape and athletes that take the sport seriously are seldom bored, he said. While there are some costs associated with being a pentathlete, Noble added that the money is not prohibitive and he encourages more people to take up the sport. 

It has also given him an opportunity to travel as he competes around the world. 

“I could never go back to just running,” he said. “It is the diversity that keeps me going.”

sports@tricitynews.com