LEADING IRISH MODERN Pentathletes Natalya Coyle and Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe both battled to a top five place in the fencing section of the UIPM World Cup final in Astana today.
Coyle will head for the swimming event in fourth place after winning 22 of her 34 fencing duels. And after her second place in last month’s World Cup event in Bulgaria she will be confident of sustaining that challenge.
Lanigan-O’Keeffe claimed gold in that Sofia event and will also be targeting another prize this weekend as he sits in joint fifth place after the fencing portion of the World Cup final. The Kilkenny man won 20 of his 34 contests and is together with five rivals on 226 points after round one.
In addition to the chase for individual honours, Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Coyle will be defending their status as back-to-back mixed relay World Cup winners having claimed gold in this event in 2016 and 2017.
The remaining Irish interest in Astana comes from Sive Brassil and Eilidh Prise who will be aiming to move up the standings in their stronger events after recording nine fencing wins each.
