Jamie Cooke toasted a perfect day as he became the first British man to win Modern Pentathlon Gold at the World Cup Final in Sarasota, Florida.
Cooke beat second-placed Patrick Dogue and bronze medallist Valentin Prades to the top step on the podium following up his gold in Kecskemét in Hungary.
The 25-year-old was second quickest in the pool and was in third place going into the final event, but he overcame his opponents in the combined shooting and running race to take the gold medal.
“With my last green light, I thought, ‘this could be in the bag’” Cooke said.
“But it wasn’t until those last couple of corners I actually realised that I was going to do this. It’s been a perfect day.”
“I must remember this isn’t just a swimming competition – I need to perform like that in all five events.”
Cooke finished his fencing ranking round on Thursday in 17th place which he described as a massive improvement on how he used to fence.
A recent change in training routine, with greater concentration on his fencing technique, appears to be working for the Briton as he recorded 18 victories and 17 defeats.
In lane four in the fifth and final swimming heat, Cook finished in 1 minute and 58.76 seconds, the second quickest time of the day.
He was sitting in fourth place ahead of the equestrian event but a cool, calm and collected clear round on the grey gelding, Hannover MCN, helped him pick up a maximum 400 points.
That left Cooke with an 11-second handicap going into the run and shoot which he overcame with a time of 11 minutes and 12 seconds for gold.
In the women’s competition, Pentathlon GB’s Freyja Prentice came home in sixth after a stylish clear round in the show jumping and strong combined event.
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