Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe's Olympic dream is over

Ireland Olympic modern pentathlete Arthur Lanigan O'Keeffe.

Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe's dream of qualifying for a third Olympics is over.

The 29-year-old Kilkenny pentathlete has failed to recover from a hip injury sustained last month which forced him to withdraw from the UIPM 2021 Pentathlon World Cup final in Hungary.

Lanigan-O’Keeffe – a former European champion and Pentathlon World Cup gold medallist who finished eighth at the Rio 2016 Olympics - had hoped to make one last attempt at qualifying for the Tokyo Games at this week's World Championships in Cairo but this morning confirmed he will not compete.

He said: “I won’t be going to my third Olympics in Tokyo and I’m really sad about that, especially after working so hard and coming through all the disruption of the past two seasons. My main focus now is on getting the treatment I need for my hip so that I can be back in action in the next six to 12 months.”

Meanwhile, Galway's Sive Brassil will be in Cairo in her last throw of the dice for Tokyo. Brassil is currently 35th in the women’s UIPM Olympic world ranking list and may need a career-best result to move up enough places to secure an Olympic berth via the rankings. Winning a medal would result in automatic qualification.

The Galway athlete has competed six times at the Pentathlon World Championships with a best finish of 28th in Budapest in 2019 – an improvement consistent with her results across the board. In the last three Pentathlon World Cups where she was able to finish, she was 16th, 18th and 27th, and 25th in last month’s Pentathlon World Cup Final.

Brassil said: “The World Championships is always the pinnacle of the pentathlon season so I’m very excited to compete.

“I am feeling very fit and ready so I’m looking forward to putting in a strong performance. The main focus for me right now is putting in a good performance at the World Championships. If all goes well, then I can focus on the Olympics in August. All of the training and competing all year has been helping me prepare for Tokyo.

“My goal for Cairo is to have a strong performance and consolidate all the hard work I’ve put in this season. It’s a great opportunity for me and I’m really looking forward to giving it my all.” Brassil and coaches Martina McCarthy and Andrei Fedotov will be the only members of the Irish delegation in Cairo after a change in Irish Government travel advice relating to Egypt. The country will tomorrow be added to the red list for Irish travellers, meaning even athletes who are allowed to travel via performance exemptions will have to quarantine for 10 days – five in a hotel and five at home – on return.