Coyle secures second silver

NATALYA COYLE overcame a strong field in Cairo yesterday to claim her second Mondern Pentathlon World Cup silver medal.

The 28-year-old picked off most of her opposition during the laser run for a podium finish, having won silver at last year’s event in Sofia.

“It feels fantastic – I’m absolutely delighted to come away with silver. It’s my second major individual medal so what a way to start the season,” the Meath woman (right) said.

“I thought it was a good day. I was a second slower in the pool, but my fencing was good and I rode a clear round.

“I think everybody had a bit of a nightmare on the shooting range so I was absolutely delighted to come away with second.

“It’s great to see that a good winter training has paid off and my major focus is the European Championships, where I’m aiming to get a qualifying position for Tokyo.”

Coyle was 15th fastest in the pool after a 200m swim of 2 minutes 19.58 seconds. However, it was in the fencing arena that she catapulted herself into medal contention, a return of 23 victories and 12 defeats giving her 238 points.

Coyle went on to be one of 11 riders to enjoy a clean ride, and the resulting 300 points moved her into third place overall.

A solid laser run time of 12:42.20 saw her hang on the shoulder of Russia’s gold medallist Uliana Batashova, finishing 11 seconds behind the champion but comfortably ahead of former world champion Sarolta Kovacs of Hungary.

Fellow Irish athlete Sive Brassil narrowly missed out on qualifying for yesterday’s Women’s Individual final having finished 37th in the semifinal.