Youngster Cooke shines as Britain just fail to claim relay medal

GREAT Britain's men narrowly missed out on a relay medal at the Modern Pentathlon World Championships in China.

Rising star Jamie Cooke and Beijing Olympians Sam Weale and Nick Woodbridge were in the medal mix throughout but just faded in the closing stages, allowing the hosts to snatch bronze. Belarus won gold ahead of silver medallists Korea.

Former European junior champion Cooke, 19 was holding on to third position and was neck-and-neck with the vastly experienced 2008 world champion Ilia Frolov with less than 300m of the final run in Chengdu remaining.

But the Russian, one of the strongest runners on the pentathlon circuit, who is 61 places ahead of Cooke in the world rankings, finally pulled away in the closing metres to secure a five second winning margin.

However, performance director Jan Bartu had nothing but praise for the youngster's performance.

"We competed well throughout the day and held on to it until the last few metres of the combined event," he said. 

"Jamie was running head-to-head with Frolov, who is one of the strongest runners in the field. When Frolov broke away, there was no way Jamie could come back on him.

"The important thing is that Jamie, who is only 19, fitted in this cut-throat competition, and that's very encouraging. 

"They worked well as a team and they dismantled the Lithuanian and the Czech teams. I'm very happy with their performance today. It should give them confidence for the challenges ahead next year."