Jamie Cooke won the first Modern Pentathlon World Cup medal of his career yesterday - and did so in style by taking gold in Budapest.
The 22-year-old, who won the World Junior Championships in Argentina in 2011, had to produce a gritty and spirited performance to battle back from 24th place after the fencing.
But Cooke - ranked number 40 in the world - was the fastest in the pool, went clear in the ride and then produced a terrific run/shoot to take gold.
It rounded off a fantastic weekend for the British team in Budapest, that had already seen reigning world champion Mhairi Spence take bronze in the women's final on Saturday.
Yeovil's Sam Weale, competing at his first World Cup since London 2012, also came home in sixth place in the men's final.
Cooke went into the run/shoot in fourth, 21 seconds behind event leader, Hungary's world number two Adam Marosi, the bronze medallist at the London 2012 Olympics who had already won World Cup gold in Rio in March and silver in Palm Springs in February.
But Cooke overhauled him on the third visit to the shooting range, using just six shots to hit the five targets in 10.35 seconds. Marosi needed nine shots and 20 seconds to start his third of four 800m runs.
Cooke remained calm, again using just six shots to hit the five targets and left the range for the last time with a nine second lead over the Hungarian. Cooke's lead never looked in danger on the last run and he crossed the line 10 seconds clear of Marosi.
Afterwards Cooke said: "This was my first World Cup medal, so I'm so happy. I never thought I would do this after the fencing this morning, but I had a good swim, a good ride and a good combined. My shooting was definitely the key today.
"Adam (Marosi) was awesome all day and I was definitely scared with him behind me at the end," he added. "I just ran as fast as I could."
Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director, said: "This was a fantastic conclusion to the four World Cups this year and a good start to the Rio Olympic cycle for us.
"It was an amazing performance by Jamie and a massive milestone for Pentathlon GB. He seemed to be fearless in the combined event today. It was the hardest World Cup this year, all the top athletes were competing here, but it all came together for Jamie.
"I was pleased to see two athletes finishing in the top six in the men's final. It's the first time I can recall that happening in my 15 years as Performance Director," he added. "It was good to Sam Weale return after struggling with a foot injury. He seems more relaxed and that was probably the best combination I've seen from him today. He showed he has matured as an athlete."
Weale made a good start to his return to international after London 2012, winning 19 of his 35 fencing contests for joint 14th place with 856 pentathlon points. Cooke's 15 wins put him 24th with 760 points.
Cooke produced a trademark strong swim to climb 10 places. His 200m freestyle time of 1:54.88 in the 25m pool was more than a second faster than the next quickest time and earned 1424 points.
Weale's 2:02.02 was the 12th fastest time of the day, promoting him to joint 12th ahead of the ride.
Korea's Jinhwa Jung led, but at this stage the top-15 athletes were separated by just 116 points, worth only 29 seconds in the run/shoot.
Both of the Brits rode well to move into the top-five ahead of the run/shoot. Cooke produced a clean and tidy round, going clear within the allowed time to bag the maximum 1200 points. That promoted him to fourth place overall.
Weale looked set to go clear too, but he had the third from last fence down in an otherwise clear round. That added 1160 points to his total, putting him joint fifth going into the run/shoot.
Cooke started just 10 seconds behind Hungary's leader Adam Marosi, with Weale a further 11 seconds back. Marosi and compatriot Bence Demeter, now second, were the only other two riders to go clear in the timeallowed in the ride.
And Cooke went on to take gold with the fastest run/shoot time of the day, clocking 11:18.75. Weale's 11:41.61 saw him end the day in sixth, 34 seconds behind his team-mate.
World Cup 4 in Budapest is the last opportunity for athletes to score points to qualify for the World Cup Final, which takes place at Nizhny-Novgorod in Russia from May 31 to June 2.
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