PALM SPRINGS - The USA Pentathlon World Cup No. 1 will conclude today with the mixed relay at Sunrise Park in Palm Springs.

Each mixed relay pair consists of one man and one woman from the same country. In fencing, the men face the men and the women face the women in a round-robin tournament.

In swimming, each team member swims 100 meters in a 200-meter relay. Both team members take the riding in turn to ride a nine-obstacle course.

The female member of the team begins the combined event -- firing a laser pistol at a target 10 meters away and hitting it five times before starting to run each of the two laps of an 800-meter cross country course. The male member will then do the same to conclude the race.

The U.S. team is expected to consist of Margaux Isaksen, who was seventh in the women's pentathlon Saturday and Army Spc. Dennis Bowsher, who was 33rd in the men's pentathlon Friday, according to Rob Stull, managing director of USA Pentathlon, the sport's national governing body.

The competition is scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. with the fencing in the Sunrise Park Pavilion, followed at 11:25 a.m. with the swimming in the Sunrise Park Swimming Center and the riding at 1 p.m. in Palm Springs Stadium.

The combined event will begin at 3:50 p.m., also in Palm Springs Stadium.

Tickets are $10 with children under 12 years old admitted free. More information is available on the event's website, usapworldcup.org.

On Saturday, Victoria Tereshunk of Ukraine overcame a 24-second disadvantage in the final event and a world record setting performance by China's Xiaonan Zhang to win the women's final.

Tereshunk entered the final event -- which mixes a 3,200-meter run with shooting -- tied for seventh place, 96 points behind Zhang.

Under modern pentathlon rules, the overall leader gets a one-second head start for each four points she is ahead entering what is known as the combined event, so the first runner to cross the finish line is the pentathlon winner.

Tereshunk started 24 seconds behind Zhang in the combined event at Palm Springs Stadium, where pentathletes fire a laser pistol Advertisement

[ Berry-Bell and Hall Mortuary ] and must hit a target 10 meters away five times before starting each of the four laps of the 800- meter course.

Tereshunk passed Zhang near the finish line and finished 3.34 seconds ahead of Zhang, to win the pentathlon.

Tereshunk was timed in 12 minutes, 29.55 seconds in the combined event, the fifth fastest time, and received 2,204 points. Zhang's time of 12:56.89 was the 18th fastest and worth 2,096 points.

Tereshunk finished the pentathlon with 5,400 points, 12 more than Zhang, who finished second. Yane Marques of Brazil, the bronze medalist in the London Olympics, was third with 5,368.

Zhang began the pentathlon by winning 30 of 35 fencing bouts in the Sunrise Park Pavilion for 1,120 points, the most by a woman in the fencing portion of a modern pentathlon. A pentathlete winning 25 of 35 bouts receives 1,000 points, with each victory above or below 25 worth 24 points.

Zhang remained in the lead after the second and third events, the 200- meter swim in the Sunrise Park Swimming Center, where she was 28th in 2:27.59, and riding, where she received 1,140 points, the 20th-highest total.

Tereshunk won 21 of her 35 fencing bouts for 904 points, the seventh highest total. She received 1,132 points for her swimming time of 2:19:03, the 14th fastest time, and 1,160 points in riding, matching the 10th-highest total.

A swimming time of 2:30 is worth 1,000 points, with every one-third of a second faster or slower worth four points.

A clear round in the riding is worth 1,200 points, with pentathletes losing 40 points for each jump they knock down, a refusal to jump or the first fall. They also lose four points for each second they are over the allotted time.

Isaksen was the top American in the field of 36 from 15 nations, finishing seventh with 5,312 points. The other American, her younger sister, Isabella, was 29th with 4,968.

The modern pentathlon was invented in 1909 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, as a test of the skills required by 19th century cavalry soldiers, and first held in the Olympics in 1912.