LONDON OLYMPIAN NATALYA Coyle and team-mate Éanna Bailey clinched a historic first World Cup medal for Ireland in modern pentathlon yesterday.
Coyle and Bailey won silver in the mixed relay event at Palm Springs, USA, where they finished second to Hungarian duo Leila Gyenesei and Adam Marosi.
Viktoria Tereshuk and Pavlo Tymoshchenko of Ukraine took bronze in the final, the first event of the inaugural mixed relay World Cup series.
Ireland’s only other major championship medal to date in modern pentathlon — a five discipline multi-sport which includes fencing, swimming, riding and a combined run/shoot — was Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe’s bronze at the Junior World Championships in Poland last September.
Coyle, Bailey and Lanigan-O’Keeffe also competed in the individual events in California this week. Bailey and Lanigan-O’Keeffe finished 15th and 16th in the men’s event while Coyle was 25th in the women’s.
The team will miss next month’s World Cup event in Rio and return to training in Ireland to prepare for April’s third World Cup date in Chengdu, China.
