Trinity College sports scholarships students excel for Irish team in London 2012 Olympic Games!
The Sport Department would like to congratulate Natalya Coyle and Mark Kenneally who represented the Irish team in the London 2012 Olympics.
Natalya achieved ninth place in the Women's Modern Pentathlon to end the Olympic Games in brilliant fashion for the Irish team. Mark Kenneally, Ireland's sole representative in the Marathon, finished in 57th place in very tough conditions with a time of 2: 21: 13.
Business Economic and Social Studies student Natalya, was 11th going into the combined event and managed to break into the top 10 for a sensational achievement for the amateur having just taken up the sport a few years ago. She finished 47 seconds behind gold medal winner Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania. In the show jumping event Natalya demonstrated real horsemanship over the 12 fences, which had to be completed within 75 seconds, finishing fifth out of all the competitors.
Speaking soon after her terrific achievement, Natalya stated: "It was a dream. I was 11th in the fencing, best I've ever fenced, I achieved personal best in the swim, a really good ride and I'm sure it was a personal best in the combined section of the competition. I couldn't have asked for anything better. The crowd was unbelievable and all my friends and family came to support me".
On the same morning, Trinity PhD student, Mark Kenneally, Ireland's sole representative in the Marathon, competed with over 100 other runners, representing over 70 nations. The field of elite athletes faced high sun with temperatures in the 20s and humidity of 80%, which resulted in only 85 athletes finishing the course out of 105 starters.
Mark paced himself well over the first half of the race, but fell victim to the weather conditions like many of the other competitors and struggled over the closing miles. Mark finished in 57th place in a time of 2:21:13, almost seven minutes outside his personal best time of 2:13:55 which he achieved in the Amsterdam marathon last October where he achieved his Olympic marathon qualification.
The Clonliffe Harriers runner was disappointed with his time. "I felt good for the first 16 or 17 miles", stated Kenneally. "The last seven or eight miles were a struggle to get home. It's great to have the Olympic experience and everything but I want to perform on this stage. Hopefully, in four years time I can still be around and make this right".