Britain couldn’t end their Modern Pentathlon World Championship campaign with a third medal but you won’t find performance director Jan Bartu complaining at the final result.
The men’s relay team of Jamie Cooke, Joe Evans and Nick Woodbridge were the last Brits in action in Chinese Taipei but couldn’t finish with a medal as they finished fifth.
They were so close though as they progressed from seventh after the fencing to fifth after the 200m freestyle swim and then to second after dropping just 122 points in the riding arena.
However they were edged out of the podium positions in the combined run-shoot as Hungary claimed gold ahead of China and Russia – Britain just 24 points away from bronze.
And so Britain leave Chinese Taipei with Woodbridge’s individual silver and women’s team gold although Pentathlon GB performance director Bartu hailed the World Championships a success.
“It was an exciting day and the boys were in contention from the outset,” said Bartu, of the British team, who train at the Pentathlon GB high performance centre at the University of Bath.
“They were fighting hard all day and they wanted that medal badly. They were absolutely gutted not to get on the podium, but you have to say that the opposition were stronger in the end.
“They should take this as a positive and a learning experience and come back stronger next year. They have proved they belong with the top teams in the competition.
“We can be satisfied at this point in the Olympic cycle. Nick’s individual medal was another historic milestone and the girls have dominated the team event in consecutive years.”
© Sportsbeat 2013