Lanigan-O’Keeffe to Compete in London 2012 Olympic Games. Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe’s last minute call up to the London 2012 Olympic Games was confirmed by the Union International Pentathlon Modern (UIPM) on Sunday22nd  after the Polish National Olympic Committee withdrew an athlete. Lanigan-O’Keeffe, 20, joined team-mate Natalya Coyle as they headed to London on Thursday 26th for final preparations before competing in the final weekend of the Games (11/12 August). The year long Olympic qualification period saw Lanigan-O’Keeffe produce some excellent performances beginning with a 20thplace at the 2011 European Championships in Great Britain. He backed this up with a string of good competitions in 2012 including a 20th place at World Cup 2 in Brazil and 24th in World Cup Final in China. Despite this, the young Irish athlete fell short on qualification from the Olympic ranking criteria as he finished 44th and was bitterly disappointed to miss out on his dream.   It was Lanigan-O’Keeffe’s result at the European Championships 2011 that eventually reversed his fortunate and saw him qualify after Olympic qualified Lukaz Klekot (Poland) tested positive for the banned substance at the 2012 Polish Championships. Lanigan-O’Keeffe spoke of his qualification: “It means all my hard work and sacrifices have paid off, it just means so much I just can’t explain!” Lindsey Weedon, Pentathlon Ireland’s Performance Director,described the situation “We knew Arthur was the continental reserve but it was highly unlikely that he would get the call as the majority of the European nations had qualified more than two quota athletes allowed to compete so they had their own athletes that would fill the slot should it become available. Now he’s been given an opportunity to realize his dream, it’s a real change of fortune for him especially after his disappointment of initially missing the mark.” Currently ranked 7th on the Junior World rankings, Lanigan-O’Keeffe will head to London as one of only two junior athletes contesting the men’s event. With the average age of the gold medalists being 26.7 years, Lanigan-O’Keeffe’s chances of medals will improve with age. 2012 will be a fantastic opportunity for this Irish talent to experience the Olympics with future hopes of heading to Rio 2016. For such a young athlete, Lanigan-O’Keeffe achievement is a personal triumph but couple this with the qualification of Natalya Coyle in the women’s event, and a picture begins to build about a sport that has a bright future in Ireland and a very successful High Performance Programme. Weedon highlights the support that’s the programme’s received: “What Pentathlon Ireland are doing has evolved dramatically in the last two and a half years and much of that is due to the support and guidance of the Irish Sports Council and the Irish Institute of Sport.”

(this post was unfortunately delayed due to technical issues with the site)