Modern Pentathlon:Natalya Coyle will compete in the final at the first World Cup event of 2012 tomorrow after claiming the 12th and last qualifying place from Group A at the event in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Coyle began in the fencing hall, fencing each of the other 23 athletes for one touch. She successfully hit 10 opponents but was defeated by 13, giving her a pentathlon points score of 760 and placing her in 16th position overall.
Coyle then moved to the pool where she recorded a personal best time of 2.19.33 for 1128 pentathlon points, moving up to 14th position.
For the combined run/shoot event, athletes begin at timed intervals according to their points handicap from the previous two events. Coyle began one minute and 11 seconds behind the overall lead and needed to make up nine seconds on the athlete in 12th position to qualify for the final.
Coyle’s final shoot saw her leave the range in 13th position and quickly make up ground on struggling Czech athlete Lucie Grolichova, moving her into 12th position. Coyle ran well over the last 1km loop to hold off the fast finishing British athlete, Freyja Prentice, and claim the last qualification place.
Coyle is one of 36 athletes who qualified for tomorrow’s final. No scores are carried over from the qualification rounds so athletes compete again in fencing, swimming, combined run/shoot and also the show jumping discipline.
Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Eanna Bailey have both been drawn in qualification group B for the men’s competition tomorrow.