World Cup Pentathlon - Womens Final

Natalya Coyle moved up an incredible seven places in the combined run/shoot event to finish 18th in the Final at World Cup 1. Coyle had performed solidly in the fence, swim and show jumping phase to start the combined in 25th position. A flawless shooting display, in which the young Irish athlete didn't miss a shot, and confident running saw her claw her way through the field to produce her best World Cup finish to date.

The 36 athletes that qualified for today's final began their competition in the fencing hall. For hit against each athlete meant a total of 35 bouts. Coyle, showed good determination on the piste but wasn't always rewarded with the victory. Her final tally of 15 victories and 20 defeats gave her 760 pentathlon points and placed her in 22nd place.

Unfortunately Coyle couldn't repeat the personal best time she produced in the qualification round and posted a respectable time of 2:20.70 for 1112 points. Coyle's time was the 22nd fastest but the leaderboard showed a drop in her position to 28th after the points from the first two events were totaled.

Coyle drew "Romeo" for the show jumping phase and was clear for the first 9 fences. Unfortunately, Coyle lost impulsion into the treble and was punished with a stop costing her 40points. This coupled with some time faults gave her a ride score of 1088 from a possible maximum of 1200. With other athletes struggling in the riding event, Coyle moved up the leaderboard to 25th position.

Coyle lined up for the start of the combined run/shoot event in 25th position with a handicap of 1minute 34seconds from the overall competition leader Lena Schoneborn (GER). With valuable ranking points at stake and small margins between the athletes' start time Coyle set about making up ground on the athletes ahead of her by shooting 5 from 5 in her shoot series in just 11 seconds. Strong running over the first kilometer and an identical second shoot series saw her overtake several athletes ahead of her. A second strong run lap and Coyle came to the range for the final time and completed a flawless shooting display, again clearing the final shoot series in 11.8 seconds. A gutsy final 1km loop saw her take out a few more athletes to finish in 18th position. Coyle total time for the combined event was 11.35 and a massive personal best with her total shoot time the second best in the competition.

Coyle will now head to Rio De Janerio tomorrow evening in preparation for World Cup 2 where the qualification round will be on Thursday (15th March) and the final will be held on Saturday (17th March).