There was heartache for team Ireland’s Eilidh Prise and Mike Healy on Saturday afternoon last as they finished in fourth place in the Mixed Relay event at the World University Modern Pentathlon Championships in Budapest, Hungary. In what was an incredible performance by both athletes it was understandably hard to finish just 19 points and one place away from a medal in the inaugural Modern Pentathlon Championships at University level.

The event began with the Swim relay and a time of 1.59.31 saw Ireland sit in sixth place. Ireland moved up to third place overall after the fencing leg of the relay with Eilidh Prise winning 16 of her 24 bouts, while Mike Healy won 12 of his 24 bouts, giving Ireland ranking of second overall in the fencing leg.

In the penultimate event show jumping Mike Healy went clear and Eilidh prise picked up a total of 7 faults to give Ireland a rank of 5th overall over the jumps, but in joint third overall ahead of the laser run.

Eilidh Prise had a fantastic leg in the laser run missing just one target in each round, and handed over the baton to Mike with Ireland sitting level with Egypt in third place with it all to play for in the last leg. It was to be oh so close for Mike as he gave everything but unfortunately the near brilliant shooting from Egypt’s Sherif Nazier saw his country take the bronze medal.

It has been a fantastic first ever World University Modern Pentathlon Championships for Ireland with fourth place overall in the Mixed Relay and Eilidh taking 6th place overall in the women’s competition while Mike was very happy with his 14th place finish in the men’s competition.