Marcus ‘Mark’ Hartigan competed in the men’s modern pentathlon at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games as part of Ireland’s first-ever Olympic modern pentathlon team.

From Banktown, Baltray, Co. Louth, and educated at Glenstal Abbey School in Co. Limerick alongside his brother Jerome, Mark was deeply affected by nerves in the riding phase – the first discipline – and transferred his anxiety to his assigned mount, which became almost uncontrollable.

He managed only 884 points out of a possible 1100 in the riding, well below the scores of the leading competitors who averaged over 1000. As a graduate of Salle Duffy and a representative of Ireland at World Junior Fencing Championships, his fencing credentials were sound, but swimming proved his and Jerome’s weakest discipline – they were the only two swimmers in the 43-man field to swim slower than four minutes.

He and Jerome were based in Reading from January 1980, preparing full-time at Arborfield under coach Mike Westgate. The Irish team finished 12th and last in the team competition with 13,295 points – over 2,800 behind the Soviet Union.