Irish tandem strike gold in mixed relay event at pentathlon World Cup
SARASOTA -- The mixed team relay will not be part of the modern pentathlon event schedule at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August.
That isn't going to stop Ireland's Natalya Coyle and Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe hoping the team competition will be on the schedule in Tokyo in 2020.
Coyle and Lanigan-O'Keeffe, who are competing to earn individual spots on the Irish Olympic team, provided a preview of the excitement the team relay can offer Sunday, and they finished draped, together, in the Irish flag.
The duo erased a five-second deficit after three events to win the combined cross country running and laser-shooting competition and capture the gold medal in the UIPM World Cup Final.
It was the first team gold medal for Coyle and Lanigan-O'Keeffe in a World Cup event in the current cycle after two silver-medal finishes.
"It's fantastic to come away with the gold," Coyle said afterward. "We were pretty consistent the whole way through the day. We had a really strong swim. We 'held it' in the ride" and "ran away with it" in the combined event.
"The only way to win a pentathlon is to be consistent over all five events," added Lanigan-O'Keeffe.
"Today was a good day. We had no absolutely awful events and we ended up in front."
The competition was held at Nathan Benderson Park and the Selby Aquatic Center. Coyle and Lanigan-O'Keeffe placed second in the swimming competition at Selby and third in fencing. Their sixth-place finish in equestrian jumping set the stage for their gold-medal-clinching turn in the run-and-shoot relay.
Overall, Coyle and Lanigan-O'Keeffe finished 15 seconds ahead of silver medalists Katsiaryna Arol and Mikalai Hayanouski of Belarus, who led after three events. Valeriya Permykina and Pavlo Tymoshchenko of Ukraine, who were in second place after three events, captured the bronze.
Coyle placed 18th overall in the women's World Cup Final Friday, an event won by Lena Schoneborn of Germany. Lanigan-O'Keeffe, the European champion, did not compete in the men's World Cup Final Saturday because he already has qualified for the Olympics.
Both Coyle and Lanigan-O'Keeffe have a great shot to represent Ireland well in the Olympics. Lanigan-O'Keeffe called their team victory "a great stepping stone.
"Both Natalya and I have high hopes for Rio. We're competitors. We train hard. We don't train to just compete. We train to do well." It was "a really good way to get that competition pressure of being up in the front. We usually do quite well in the relay. You can transfer that (competition pressure) into the individuals."
This story was originally published May 8, 2016 at 11:50 PM with the headline "Irish tandem strike gold in mixed relay event at pentathlon World Cup ."