Jamie Cooke produced a stunning sprint finish to claim an historic gold at the modern pentathlon World Championships in Mexico – Great Britain’s first male gold in the event for 25 years.
Sitting third after the laser shooting – Cooke overhauled Ukraine’s Pavlo Tymoschenko in the final stages of the run and then put Frenchman Valentin Prades in his sights.
The Frenchman thought the title was his as he approached the finish line in Mexico City but Cooke dug deep one last time to pip him on the line by 0.03 seconds.
"It's a dream come true," said Cooke. "I've worked so hard for this. I was really struggling on that last lap and unfortunately my grandad died last week so that was for him.”
"My first shoot was terrible, so I was trying to make amends for that," he said. "I saw Valentin go past me and I thought 'oh no', but I just dug in and kept going to see what could happen.
"I just found in the last 100m that I had something left in my legs."
After the swimming, fencing, showjumping, shooting and running, Cooke’s compatriot Joe Choong had to settle for ninth overall. Myles Pillage was 34th and that was enough to secure Great Britain the team silver medal.
Cooke becomes the first British male champion since Richard Phelps back in 1993 – although both Mhairi Spence and Samantha Murray have topped the pile in the women’s competition this decade.
Sportsbeat 2018
(Photo credit: Pentathlon GB)