Timing is everything in sport and Tom Toolis could not have picked a better moment to claim his first World Cup medal, just two months out from the Olympic Games.
Toolis took silver in the modern pentathlon World Cup Finals in Hungary, narrowly missing out on gold to France’s Valentin Prades.
Toolis was on course for gold before the laser run and was just beaten to the line by Prades, who came steaming past in the final 100 metres.
It’s still a memorable day for the St Mary’s University student, who finished comfortably as the top Brit.
Rio 2016 Olympian and former world champion Jamie Cooke finished in 19th, despite a strong start, while Sam Curry came home in 25th.
Cooke, the 2018 world champion, was quick out of the blocks in Székesfehérvár and was the only athlete to go under two minutes in the swimming pool.
He touched the wall in 1m58.86s to comfortably win the 200m freestyle race but a disappointing fencing performance saw him fall to 21st.
Great Britain still had an athlete top of the standings in Sam Curry, although with 12th-placed Toolis just a point behind, it was a tightly bunched field.
Toolis, who was third fastest in the pool, came into his own in equestrian and moved to the top of the leaderboard on 835 points, with Prades just one behind.
Prades was able to reel Toolis in and snatch gold but the British athlete still crossed the line to take home a memorable medal.
Sportsbeat 2021