Natalya Coyle's considers calling time on career after uncooperative horse means Olympic heartbreak
2020 Tokyo Olympic Games Friday - Modern Pentathlon, Tokyo Stadium, Tokyo, Japan 6/8/2021
A bitterly disappointed Natalya Coyle couldn’t help but toy with thoughts that this may be the moment to call time on her career after her hopes of Olympic silverware were dashed by a disastrous round in the showjumping discipline at Tokyo Stadium today.
The 30-year old, an experienced rider, dropped from fourth place in the rankings down to 18th after picking up just 234 points out of a possible 300 and the fact that very little of that was her fault only made it all the harder to bear.
The three-time Olympian finished in 24th position overall: a brutally tough turn of events and result for an athlete who had competed so well here with hopes of a medal after finishing ninth in London in 2012 and then sixth in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.
Her mount Constantin proved problematic from the outset and a refusal soon ended her medal chances.
Coyle had been sitting just off third place going into the discipline, but a shaky start ensued when her mount clipped the fourth fence. It then went from bad to worse as her horse refused at both the ninth and tenth fences before Coyle eventually got it over.
“It is really disappointing,” she said afterward. “It is not how I wanted to end my career. I suppose it’s just added disappointment because to be third in events, and to be so close, and to feel like it’s a bit snatched away from you, it is really disappointing.
“That’s pentathlon, unfortunately. I knew it was going to be tough when I watched the first rider not get around so I knew that was really tough. I thought I had made a good plan and it worked a lot in the arena but he just didn’t want to go near (the fence).
“One of the fences beforehand, it was my fault. I should have checked before. I thought it was all going okay and then it stopped. Just disappointing. I had two good Games and two good horse-riding (experiences). I put so much effort into doing it, I would have liked to have had a nice finish but that’s not sport. It is tough.”
Coyle wasn’t the only one to endure such heartbreak with event leader Annika Schleu of Germany seeing her likely gold medal slip from her grasp after her horse Saint Boy refused several times before abandoning.
It made for a disturbing scene with both horse and rider cleared distressed by the situation.
For Coyle, it all brought a halt to what had been a hugely promising day after she had clocked a superb 2:13.88 for the 200m freestyle this morning, not far off her PB, to rack up 283 points. That put her 13th in the swimming leg.
She had 23 victories and 12 defeats during yesterday’s ranking round of fencing at Musashino Forest Sports Plaza, another good return.
Great Britain’s Kate French ended up with the gold medal while Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania produced a storming last lap in the laser run to shoot up the field and finish just before Hungary’s Sarolta Kovacs in the silver spot.
Coyle was competing at her third Olympics, having finished ninth at the London Games in 2012 and sixth at the 2016 Rio Games.
"I’m really proud I’ve font to three games," she told RTÉ earlier. "But it’s really not how I wanted things to end.
"I’ve generally been really lucky. I’ve had an amazing career, got to stand on podiums. There’s lots of rainbows. There are peaks and troughs. It’s a bit sad right now, but generally it’s been really good."
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