Ireland earned mixed relay gold in Drzonków ©UIPM

Ireland's Natalya Coyle and Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe claimed victory in the mixed relay as the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) World Cup in Drzonków concluded.

The pair produced impressive performances in the opening two events of the day, ending with the second fastest swimming time by clocking 1min 57.56sec.

They would follow the display by winning the fencing event, claiming victory in 30 of their bouts.

Coyle and Lanigan-O'Keeffe would allow the chasing pack to close on them after picking up 30 penalty points in the riding discipline.

A strong performance in the combined event was enough for Coyle and Lanigan-O'Keeffe to seal victory, however, with the duo ending on 1,436 points.

Germany's Annika Schleu and Christian Zillekens came through to take silver on 1,422, with Kazakhstan's Elena Potapenko and Pavel Ilyashenko rising up the standings to win bronze on 1,420.

"I think it's great when you work together as pentathletes," said Lanigan-O'Keeffe.

"Myself and Natalya have a good relationship and when one of us is struggling we pick each other up.

"It makes it a little easier to stay focused."

The mixed relay brought the World Cup to a close in Poland ©UIPM
The mixed relay brought the World Cup to a close in Poland ©UIPM

UIPM President Klaus Schormann claimed the event featured promising performances from several nations and expressed his hope it could feature at Tokyo 2020.

"The mixed relay is a very important team competition for our movement and our union," he said.

"I'm really happy that we again had nations competing from all around the world, and our Asian athletes from South Korea, Japan and Kazakhstan performed extremely well as they did in the individual events.

"We are looking forward to the decision of the IOC Executive Board in July when they will decide if our mixed relay will be included in the 2020 Olympic Games, as is our wish."

The mixed relay brought competition to a close in Drzonków, with Vilnius in Lithuania now set to hold the World Cup Final from June 23 to 25.