Fencing and riding issues as Cooke comes 25th in Budapest
CHELTENHAM’S world champion Jamie Cooke finished 25th at the Budapest Indoor International.
Joe Choong took the bronze medal for the Pentathlon GB team with Myles Pillage eighth, Tom Toolis came home 11th and Sam Curry was 27th.
In the pool, Pillage topped the swim discipline with a rapid 1:54.08, beating Cooke (1:57.05) into third with Choong fourth.
In the fencing hall, Pillage stayed in front with 26 victories and just nine defeats from his 35 bouts to stay top of the overall leaderboard with Choong second and Toolis third.
Things were much tougher for Curry and Cooke, who had 14 victories and 21 defeats to sit 25th.
Pillage led after the ride with Toolis third and Choong fourth with Cooke enduring more struggles but in the laser run, positions changed throughout.
Pillage came home eighth with Toolis 11th while Cooke recorded the fourth quickest time of the day to move up to 25th at the line and end his day on a high.
Cooke had earlier qualified for the final in qualifying group B.
Starting with the 200m swim. Cooke, the Modern Pentahlon Olympic record holder in the discipline, led the British charge with a time of 1:58.11, just ahead of Choong (1:59.95). There was also an impressive time of 2:00.46 from Toolis.
Choong topped the fencing standings with 28 victories from his 37 bouts. Impressive hits also came from Cooke (26W 11D) and Toolis (25W 12D) meaning the British trio were second, third and fourth and from that point, qualification was a formality.