World Cup Pentathlon - Mens Final

Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe finished 25th in his debut performance at a final in a World Cup event. The 20 year old, originally from Kilkenny, will take heart from an assured performance amongst the World's best athletes where he was the also the highest placed junior athlete.

Lanigan-O'Keeffe began his favourite event, the fencing, well. He scored a run of 10 victories and just 5 defeats an impressive feat but one that he, unfortunately, was unable to sustain. Despite this, Lanigan-O'Keeffe finished with a total of 17 victories and 18 defeats for 808 pentathlon points and equal 16th position.

Lanigan-O'Keeffe produced the 10th quickest swim of the final, posting a time of 2:04.43, a little way off his own time from the qualification competition but enough to maintain his 16th position on the leaderboard after two events.

Drawing a horse called "Joshua", Arthur rode a very accomplished round and was unfortunate to have two fences down in the treble and another two on the course. This gave him a ride score of 1120 but with other athletes having more costly rides, Lanigan-O'Keeffe maintained his 16th position.

Lanigan-O'Keeffe started the combined run/shoot event in 16th position and 49seconds behind the event leader but with just one minute difference between the athlete in 6th and 30th positions the combined event was sure to really shake up the leaderboard. Lanigan-O'Keeffe cleared his three shoot series in 19, 10 and 15 seconds respectively but tired legs saw him run out of steam on the final 1 kilometer loop and was unable to make up ground on any athletes ahead of him.

His final position of 25th is extremely encouraging and a massive confidence boost for the Junior athlete. If Lanigan-O'Keeffe can produce similar performances at the remaining three world cup competitions he may be in with a chance to qualify to the World Cup Final in China in May where there will high level ranking points available for Olympic qualification.

Natalya Coyle, who finished 18th in the Women's Final, and Eanna Bailey will join Lanigan-O'Keeffe on the trip south to Brazil for the second World Cup event of 2012 that will be hosted in Rio de Janerio. Coyle and Lanigan-O'Keeffe will be looking to repeat their qualification status while Bailey will be looking to qualify for his first World Cup final.