Ireland won four medals on the first day of the UIPM 2018 Laser Run World Championships at Trinity College, including individual silvers in both showpiece events for Kate Coleman Lenehan and Tom O’Brien.
Coleman Lenehan kept her composure to win individual silver in the senior women’s race and help secure the team gold with the collective efforts of herself, Eilidh Prise (fifth) and Grace Culhane (14th).
Culhane had already pocketed a team silver medal from the Under-19 team event alongside Grace Costello and Leah O’Neill, but just as it looked like the Irish success would be an all-female affair – Sarah Kehoe also finished fourth in the Under-13 girls – the last race of the day provided an unexpected twist.
Step forward Tom O’Brien, who showed terrific guts to win individual silver in the senior men’s race and create a fairytale ending to a day of warm sunshine and fierce competition between more than 400 athletes from 28 nations.
O’Brien, from Stillorgan in Dublin, said: "It’s wicked. It feels so good and I don’t even care what medal I got, I’m just so happy I got to compete in front of my family and friends. We don’t get the chance very often and it means everything."
O’Brien never looked like catching the runaway leader, Bence Kardos of Hungary, but he showed great character to fight off competition from Harry Lane of Great Britain and David Kindl of the Czech Republic.
On the last of the four 800m laps, Kindl (Czech Republic) looked to have left the home hero behind but O’Brien surged back past his rival in the final 200m, and later thanked the vocal support he received from the sidelines.
"I practise my laser shooting every day and I knew my shooting would be competitive. I’m not the fastest runner, but I do tend to finish strongly and I passed my brother on the last lap and got a roar from him, and I just thought ‘time to go’."
Coleman Lenehan, also from Dublin, had a less dramatic race, relying on her experience and grit to protect her second place.
Jessica Varley of Great Britain had surged clear at the halfway mark but Coleman Lenehan (IRL) kept enough in the tank to fend off the rest of the field and protect her silver – Ireland’s first-ever individual world Laser Run medal.
Coleman Lenehan said: "I could hear the commentator call out the names of the athletes behind me and I knew how quick they were, so I knew I would just have to hold on.
"Jess went past me like I was going backwards, so I knew I just had to focus on keeping a gap between myself and the others. It’s so nice to be able to stand on the podium here in my home country. We don’t get this chance very often."
