There was great success for the Irish at the ECMP European Modern Pentathlon Championships which took place in Hungary. Team Ireland took home two silver medals in the Women’s Relay and the Women’s Team Event.
Team Ireland were represented by four athletes who qualified for the European Modern Pentathlon Championships: Natalya Coyle, Eilidh Prise, Sive Brassil and Kate Coleman Lenehan.
It was Kate Coleman Lenehan and Eilidh Prise who took home the first piece of silverware for Team Ireland. Competing in the Women’s Team Relay, the pair placed second to win Ireland their first ever senior medal in this event at the European Championships.
First ever women’s team relay medal for Ireland today at senior European Champs with @eilidhprise 2nd 🎉🎉An up and down sort of day but it all came right at the end. Great start to the competition but now to focus for the individual semis on Thursday 💪🏼🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/Fyi8PqmmHw
— Kate Coleman (@Kate_CLenehan) July 17, 2018
Both Kate and Eilidh are coming off recent successful campaigns in the mixed relay events. Kate placed second at the World Cup in Kecskemet, Hungary with teammate Michael Healy, whilst only last week Eilidh was fourth in the World University Championships also with Michael Healy.
After a days break, the individual semi-finals took place for the Senior Women European Modern Pentathlon Championships. All four of the Irish athletes competed, however Kate unfortunately missed out on qualification to the final. Nevertheless, history was made as Ireland had three female representatives at the Senior European Championships for the first time in history.
Natalya Coyle was the highest of the finishers for Team Ireland as she placed 5th in the individual standings. Eilidh Prise came home 11th, whilst Sive Brassil finished 21st. This was the highest finish for all of three of them at the Senior European Championships.
With their combined efforts, Ireland took home silver in the Women’s Team Event behind Hungary who won gold.
In the first event of the day, Sive Brassil swam 2:14.56 in her strongest event. This ranked her 7th (out of 36 competitors) after event one. Natalya Coyle ranked 12th in the swimming with a time of 2:18.78 whilst Eilidh Prise ranked 19th with a swim of 2:19.63.
TEAM SILVER for #Ireland at the #European #Championships 😃👊🏼🇮🇪🥈 @sportireland @olympiccouncil @Inst_of_Sport great individual results with @Natalyacoyle 5th @eilidhprise 11th & @sivebraz 21st 🍾🍾🍾 #modernpentathlon pic.twitter.com/UfwD12vQvz
— Andy Mackenzie (@andy__mackenzie) July 21, 2018
In the fencing event, Natalya won 20 of her 35 bouts which ranked her 11th in the event. Eilidh Price ranked 23rd as she won 16 of her 35 duels. Sive Brassil won 12 out of 35 leaving her with a fencing ranking of 32nd.
All three athletes enjoyed a super riding performance with Natalya and Eilidh coming home with perfect scores. This meant that Natalya would start the laser-run in 8th position and Eilidh in 14th. Sive also had a very good score in the riding, with one penalty deducted, which started her back in 23rd place for the final laser-run event.
In the final laser-run event, Natalya made up ground on her rivals as she finished in 5th position, just 5 seconds behind Hungarian bronze medallist Sarolta Kovacs. It’s been a fantastic 2018 for Natalya who finished just outside the podium position at the World Cup last month. Eilidh Prise emulated Natalya and moved up from 14th to cross the line in 11th place while Sive ended the race in 21st position.
Team Ireland have enjoyed a successful season of modern pentathlon. Natalya will be delighted with her podium finishes and progression this year. Sive, Eilidh and Kate have all shown that they have what it takes to compete at the highest level. With more training under their belt Team Ireland may have a golden period of success coming very soon!
