Olympics:Natalya Coyle brought the curtain down on the London Games with a fantastic ninth placed finish in the modern pentathlon. The 21-year-old from Co Meath seems destined for a huge future in the multi-discipline event after exceeding expectations on her Olympic debut.
Coyle, who got stronger and stronger as the day progressed, ultimately left herself with too much to do going into the combined shooting and running finale but will take great satisfaction from a place in the top 10.
She made an encouraging start to her programme this morning, finishing 11th in the fencing at the Copper Box. Coyle had 19 wins to collect 856 points before the competition moved to the Aquatic Centre for the 200m freestyle. Despite winning her heat, Coyle would drop to 15th in the overall standings but in the show jumping she managed to claw back five places.
That left her 30 seconds behind the leader in joint 10th ahead of the final event at Greenwich Park with the athletes required to run three 1km laps, interspersed with shooting at targets.With the overall leaders going out first, Coyle was never likely to trouble the podium but battled to claim another two places after an exhilarating day.
Lithuania's Laura Asadauskaite took gold, storming to a convincing win to bag the final medal of the Games. Britain's Samantha Murray, who was in fourth place after the first three events, took the silver to a deafening roar from the home crowd.
Brazil's Yane Marques, who had gone into the shoot and run on level points with world number one Asadauskaite, stormed to an early lead after the first shoot but fell behind in the running laps around Greenwich Park, eventually taking bronze.