“It’s just really upsetting” – Natalya Coyle gives emotional interview after Olympic dream comes to an end

"It’s not the way I wanted to finish out my career."

Natalya Coyle's dreams of an Olympic medal in the modern pentathlon were dashed by a disastrous showjumping round when her horse refused to cooperate. Two excellent performances in the fencing rounds and swimming had put Coyle in fourth place heading into this evening’s showjumping, and the opportunity of ending up on a podium was very much a possibility. However, her horse Constantin, refused a number of fences and incurring time faults in the Tokyo Stadium. It unfortunately meant that the three-time Olympian dropped from fourth to 19th place and she could not recover in the final laser run, finishing 24th overall.

"It's just really upsetting, especially after the fencing, I thought I was in with a shout. "I knew it was going to be trouble (with the horse), but I thought I might be able to handle it.

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"It’s not the way I wanted to finish out my career, but hopefully I can look back in a day or two and be happy with coming third in the fencing.

"It's difficult in the modern pentathlon because someone else has to ride it first and she didn’t get over the treble, so I knew it was going to be tough, but I thought I came in with a good plan. "I know one of the fences was definitely my fault, number four, but I thought I did everything right or gave enough encouragement but obviously not. "It’s just hard when you’re really close and it’s snatched away from you."