‘One day I had a sword put in my hand’

Natalya Coyle, who will be the last Irish athlete to compete in this summer's Olympics, has become the first Irish athlete to qualify for the modern pentathlon.

She set out on her journey yesterday when briefing the press in Trinity College where she is a student.

The 21-year-old from Meath will compete in an event that was tailor-made by Pierre de Coubertin himself for the 1912 Games.

“Just to get to London, it’s great and will be a great experience,” she said. “But I’m young and I’m already looking forward to Rio De Janeiro, that’ll be where I’ll expect my best performance and to be at my most competitive. I just want to get the experience now and have something to take forward with me so I’ll be better prepared in four years.”

Yet even this time, it’s expected Coyle will be relatively competitive after a remarkable rise. The modern pentathlon is run across one day and consists of a one-touch fencing event where every competitor faces each other across a minute, a 200m freestyle swim, showjumping on a horse that is drawn by lottery, and a run involving air pistol shooting.

“A lot of that was new to me when I took it up a couple of years ago. I came from a pony club background but I hadn’t done any real swimming and one day I had a sword put in my hand and was told to go up and down a room stabbing people. It’s not the best way to start an Olympic campaign.”

She has made the last three World Cup finals and in the London test event last summer, she came home in 20th. Then, Coyle finally secured qualification in China in May with a 21st-place finish at a competition there. “We were supposed to get confirmation on May 31, but there was a long wait because some countries had to select who out of those qualified would get places. So it took a while and even though we were fairly sure, it was a relief.”