IRELAND’s modern pentathlon athletes Arthur Langian-O’Keeffe and Natayla Coyle made history last weekend when they both won medals at the UIPM 2018 Pentathlon World Cup in Bulgaria, where Lanigan O’Keeffe won gold.

On Friday, Meath’s Natalya Coyle became the first ever Irish athlete to win a world cup medal in the women’s event when finishing second. She was leading going into the final event – the run and shoot – but was overtaken by Britain’s Kate French.

On Saturday, Lanigan-O’Keeffe was third after the fencing and swimming leg of the gruelling five-part event – fencing, swimming, show jumping and ‘laser-run’ – but jumped into the lead following the show jumping round.

He needed a first place finish in the final laser run, where competitors complete four rounds of laser pistol shooting with an 800-metre run between each round, and managed to hold on to finish ahead of the world number one, South Korea’s Jun Woong-tae.

Both Lanigan-O’Keeffe and his girlfiend, Coyle, have competed at two Olympic Games (2012, 2016). Coyle finished sixth in Rio, and both athletes are working toward Tokyo 2020.