Ireland’s Natalya Coyle was very unfortunate in the show jumping round, dropping 14 places due to the horse given to her acting up and refusing jumps
All the points accumulated by the athletes are now counted up. For each point you are behind the leader, that is a one second delay at the start of the Laser run race.
To catch up on how Natalya Coyle has done in the modern pentathlon so far, see Modern Pentathlon: Coyle’s run ruined by horse
This event is a fast 3.2km race with four shooting stops where athletes have to hit five targets. As soon as the athlete hits the target, they can get back to running.
The winner of the race would win gold as this was the decider of the whole days work.
🐴 round
Sport can be so cruel. @Natalyacoyle was lying fourth after the fencing round but has dropped to 19th following the horse she was assigned refusing jumps. The time penalties occurred from this mean that in the Laser Run she needs to make up 64 sec pic.twitter.com/8kv9Ey6SHO
— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) August 6, 2021
Women’s Pentathlon: Laser Run
Natalya Coyle started the race in 19th place with a 64 second delay on leader Russia’s Batashova. With a mountain to climb, by the second shooting drill, the Irish woman had caught up by two seconds.
The battle for top five was hotly contested over the first 1500m until Team GB’s Kate French broke out in front. She bossed the second half of the course, completing the race 15 seconds before anyone else to take gold.
The real comeback story of the race was Lithuania’s Laura Asadauskaite who started in 13th place, 52 seconds behind first but managed to blitz the field and finish in second.
Hungary’s Sarolta Kovacs got a well-earned bronze medal finishing 16 seconds off French.
Coyle made it to the finishing line after 14:12 seconds in 24th place. A heart-breaking end to her third Games after being in such a good position going into the third event.
Medal winners are celebrated automatically, and rightly so, but let’s not forget athletes like Rhys McClenaghan , Jack Woolley, Sanita Puspure & Natalya Coyle whose games didn’t go to plan, despite 5 years and countless hours of gruelling preparation & sacrifices for #Tokyo2020
— Evanne Ní Chuilinn (@EvanneNiC) August 6, 2021
This event has proven to be one of the most tense and physically exhausting events of the Olympics. Each of the 36 athletes completed four events in five different sports in the space of five hours.
With three Olympics done, Natalya Coyle is still only 30 years old. There is only a three year wait until we see her back in the modern pentathlon finals again.
We are so proud of you @Natalyacoyle. @Kings_Hospital @KingsHos_Sport #Olympics #Olympics2020 pic.twitter.com/xFcs2MaIAt
— KHPPU (@KHPPU) August 6, 2021
