IRELAND'S Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Eanna Bailey were in impressive form in the
qualification competition at the Junior European Men's Modern
Pentathlon Championships in Poland this week.

Both Irish athletes dominated their semi final
groups, topping the overall standings at the end of the competition.

Bailey was seeded in group A and started with fencing while Lanigan-O’Keeffe was in
group B beginning with swimming. Bailey fenced well from the beginning,
scoring 7 victories and 4 defeats after the first 5 rounds. His form
continued throughout the competition, and finished with 17 victories and
10defeats for a total of 936 pentathlon points - 5th position in the
event. Over at the pool, Lanigan-O’Keeffe showed some good swimming form and
posted the 3rd fastest time in his qualification group of 2:02,53 for
1332 pentathlon points.

The semi final groups swapped sporting venues Bailey headed to the pool
and Lanigan-O’Keeffe to the fencing hall. Lanigan-O’Keeffe started off in great fashion,
going unbeaten for the first seven bouts. Again, he was able to
maintain his form throughout the fencing and finished with 18 victories
and just 9 defeats for 968 pentathlon points - 3rd position in the
fencing event. This moved him up to the top of the leader board after
two events. Bailey also posted the 3rd fastest time in his semi final,
swimming 2:04,51 for 1308 pentathlon points, moving him up to equal 3rd
after two events.

Onto the combined run/shoot event where the top 18 athletes from each
group were looking to qualify for the final. Group A was scheduled first
and Bailey started 4 seconds behind the overall event leader. An
excellent shooting performance saw him miss one shot on each of
the three series and spend a mere 41 seconds on the shooting range in
total. Impressive shooting, meant that he opened up a large gap over the
rest of the field going into the final 1km run which allowed him an
easy run home in the hope of conserving energy for the final.

Lanigan-O’Keeffe was the top athlete in group A and went into the run/shoot with the other
athletes all following after him. A solid shoot performance
saw him create a massive gap over the 2nd placed athlete and he also
enjoyed a very relaxed final kilometer run home. Both Irish pentathletes
will now contest the final of the Junior European Championships on
Saturday 24th where we will be hoping for further performances as
displayed in the semi final stage.

Natalya Coyle contested the women’s final today (FRiday) after safely coming
through the qualification competition on Wednesday. Coyle finished
15th in the Women's European Junior Final, an excellent result for the
Trinity College student.