Weale finishes 17th at Russian World Cup as Cooke drops to 21st

By Sportsbeat staff

SAM Weale finished in the top 20 at the fourth Modern Pentathlon World Cup of 2012 in Russia but fellow Brit Jamie Cooke ended just outside.

The 30-year-old, who along with Nick Woodbridge represented Britain at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, was placed 17th in Rostov with Cooke ranked 21st.

Weale improved five places from where he started the run-shoot element and overtook teammate Cooke, 11th at the beginning of the day, on his second time in the range.

Home hope Ilya Shugarov took gold ahead of Stanislau Zhurauliou of Belarus and France's Christopher Patte as Weale bettered his finish from the third World Cup in Hungary by two places.

There are now just two more events to decide who will compete at the Olympics this summer - the World Championships in May and the World Cup Final shortly after.

Weale and Cooke, who has an Olympic qualifying standard but is not yet assured of a place, will learn on May 1 whether they will be competing at the World Championships in Rome.

That announcement will be made at Pentathlon GB's High Performance Centre at the University of Bath while only two athletes per gender will earn selection for London.

"It was a tough competition for everyone with a strong Russian contingent," said Pentathlon GB Peformance Director Jan Bartu.

"Sam had a decent combined event that took him up to 17th. Realistically I think he would have been happier with a top-12 finish. It was good competition experience for Jamie."

© Sportsbeat 2012