ARTHUR LANIGAN O’Keeffe – Ireland’s first ever Olympic competitor in the men’s modern pentathlon – has earned 25th overall.
Beginning the event with fencing this morning, the 20-year-old UCD student was placed in 29th after 14 victories and 21 defeats against his fellow competitors.
Next up in the four-discipline event, Lanigan O’Keeffe claimed second in his swimming heat and ninth overall, which moved his position up 21st at the halfway mark.
The Kilkenny native, whose background is in equestrian, was paired with Wilcox in the riding and the 80 penalty points he amassed saw him jump another three places up to 18th going into the final stage.
In the combined event, athletes must run to a shooting range, try to hit five targets within the 70 second time-limit, then run another 1km – three times over. Lanigan O’Keeffe began took eight shots to hit his five targets the first time around, then nine the second time to end in 11:08.69 – giving him a total of 5516 points.
David Svodboda of the Czech Republic, who got the final event underway, claimed gold with an Olympic record score of 5,928 points while Zhongrong Cao of China and Hungary’s Adam Marosi taking silver and bronze respectively.
Only receiving a late call-up after a Polish pentathlete was banned, it is a major achievement for the young Irish athlete who will hopefully come back stronger in four years’ time.
