Benderson Park has gold medal performance in international exposure

The volunteers working on Saturday at the modern pentathlon World Cup Final at Nathan Benderson Park were unanimous in that they never had heard of Great Britain's James Cooke.

It was more important that people living in Great Britain have now heard of Sarasota.

"This is great for our community," said Sarasota's David Lewis, who volunteered as a pistol shooting timer with his wife, Erika. "This event exposes Sarasota internationally. From what I've seen, people have been very impressed."

With 25 countries represented among the 36 male and 35 female athletes in the competition, the Sarasota-Bradenton area is likely to reap benefits in the future whether visitors took time to visit the beach or check out homes in Lakewood Ranch.

"It was an international event," said University Park's Randy Bennett, who was a volunteer. "We should be proud to have this in our area because we had a huge amount of international visitors. The good news, bad news is that we're likely to have more visitors in the future because of this."

George Walter worked the event after the Sarasota County Sheriff's Department sent out a call for volunteers. "This is a heck of a facility at Benderson Park," he said. "And this is the ideal opportunity to showcase it."

The competition ran May 5-8 at Benderson Park and Selby Aquatic Center in Sarasota. The size of the crowds could be favorably compared to a high school football or basketball game. It wasn't massive exposure in terms of numbers, but the event's organization could set up Benderson Park to host other international events in the future.

Karin Weichlein moved to Osprey from Munich, Germany in 2012 and immediately began getting involved as a volunteer at Benderson Park. When the park hosted the first of three World Cup modern pentathlon events in 2014, she was the local chairman for volunteers.

"We needed over 400 volunteers because it was going to be a multi-day event," Weichlein said. "The hard part for all of us was understanding the event itself, and the complexity of it. It was a new event for all of us.

"But I can tell you the international Olympic organizations are aware of Sarasota-Bradenton."

During Saturday's competition, 36 volunteers were needed just to be timers (competitors have 70 seconds to hit the target five times) during the shooting portion of the event. Those volunteers were given instructions, for the first time, only minutes before the event was to begin.

It all has worked for the three years Benderson Park has hosted the World Cup.

"After the first year, we got a prize for the way we ran it," said Weichlein, who has now started her own business, Voluntegic, to organize volunteer forces for big events. "The prize recognized Olympic level event management."

She said it helped that Benderson Park and its staff provide a perfect venue.

"This is a phenomenal park," she said. "I am so thrilled this park is evolving."

Whether the modern pentathlon evolves in the United States remains to be seen. One of 28 summer Olympic sports, it combines swimming, fencing, show jumping, pistol shooting and running events.

Cooke was the men's overall champion, even if the volunteers hadn't heard of him.

"We volunteered because this is our way of giving back to the community," said Sarasota's Chris Sharek, who was working the event with his wife, Christy, and 16-year-old son, Zach.

"I'm disappointed there is not more people here, but I know this certainly will have a solid economic benefit for our area," Chris Sharek said.

"I was intrigued by the pentathlon," Christy Sharek said. "Although at first I didn't know what it was. And Benderson Park is right here in our backyard."