Nick Woodbridge achieved his best finish at a modern pentathlon World Championships with 10th place in Rome cementing his position as British number one.
The 25-year-old from Shropshire went into the final event, the combined run and shoot, in fifth place but was passed by a number of athletes and finished 28 seconds behind Russian winner Aleksander Lesun.
After the high of Mhairi Spence's gold on Saturday and bronze for Samantha Murray, there was no British glory on Sunday, but Woodbridge will certainly qualify for the Olympics via the ranking list.
The only British man so far to have met the qualifying standard is 21-year-old Jamie Cooke, the world junior champion, but he had a nightmare day in the Italian capital.
The Cheltenham athlete won only seven of his 35 fencing bouts and, although he won the swim, he also had a poor show jumping round and could only manage 33rd place.
Pentathlon GB performance director Jan Bartu said: "Nick demonstrated a high international standard again, but there is still room for improvement. If he had fenced throughout the way he started, he probably would have been in the medal zone.
"The pressure got to Jamie a bit in the fencing, but it will have been a good learning experience for him. He is a young athlete with great talent and a lot of potential who is trying to grow into a world-class competitor."