Ireland’s Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe has boosted his chances of qualifying for a third Olympic Games after winning a bronze medal at the season-opening Pentathlon World Cup in Cairo.
The 28-year-old Kilkenny athlete managed to make up three places in the Laser Run to snatch a place on the podium.
Finishing third in the first of five World Cup events will be a timely boost for the two-time Olympian’s position in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic ranking list, which will determine the majority of the remaining qualification places.
An elated Lanigan-O’Keeffe celebrated as he crossed the line to take his place on the podium alongside gold medallist Adam Marosi of Hungary and Korea’s Jun Woongtae, who took silver.
“I am really happy with that. I put in a really big block of training over the winter and I felt really fit out there today," Lanigan-O'Keefe said after collecting his medal.
"I hope now I can continue for the rest of the season on this trajectory. My swimming was actually about six seconds slower than usual, but that’s because I really concentrated my training on running and fencing over the winter, and it paid dividends. It feels really good.”
With Sunday’s Mixed Relay still to come, Lanigan-O’Keeffe’s bronze medal built on the strong performance of Sive Brassil, who finished 16th in the women’s final, and Natalya Coyle who also reached the final.
