Individual bronze medal for Lanigan-O'Keefe in world pentathlon final

Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe went one better than his girlfriend 24 hours earlier as he won a historic first UIPM Pentathlon World Cup Final medal for Ireland in Astana, Kazakhstan, today.

Lanigan-O’Keeffe and partner Natalya Coyle from Skryne have won gold in the Mixed Relay two years in a row but neither had come home with an individual medal until Saturday – despite Coyle’s best efforts in finishing fourth in the Women’s Final on Friday.

Dubliner Lanigan-O’Keeffe, 26, was European individual champion in 2015 and won a brilliant gold at Pentathlon World Cup Sofia last month, but this was arguably his finest day as a solo pentathlete.

The Pentathlon World Cup Final is third in terms of prestige to the Pentathlon World Championships and the Olympic Games, where Lanigan-O’Keeffe managed top-10 finishes at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Today the only thing separating him from gold was a brilliant Korean duo – Jung Jinhwa won a dominant gold and Jun Woongtae kept the Irish charge at bay to secure silver.

 

Lanigan-O'Keeffe admitted that the sandy running track had made life difficult for the group of athletes locked in an intense battle for podium places during the decisive Laser-Run event in Astana.

He said: "It was a very tough course and the sand was deep in places. On the last two laps, everyone around me was feeling it and it was a real battle of guts.

"Anything can happen in Laser-Run and you never know if the leader will keep his head, so I never gave up hope of gold, but Jung was the best man today.

"I just kept chasing everyone who was in front of me, and I managed to get past the Russian [Alexander Lifanov] but I couldn't quite catch the second-placed Korean. They have a great team."

Lanigan-O’Keeffe had performed consistently throughout the final, finishing seventh in fencing with a tally of 20 wins and 14 defeats, second in swimming with a 200m freestyle time of 2mins 01.91secs and top of the standings in horse riding after an immaculate clear round.

Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Coyle will be aiming to defend their Mixed Relay title in Sunday’s concluding event in the capital of Kazakhstan. After that their focus will turn to the European Championships in Hungary from 17-23 July.