Britain’s Sam Weale just missed out on the medals in the third Modern Pentathlon World Cup of the year, finishing fourth.

Weale, a University of Bath Sports Technology graduate, had been in contention for a medal in Budapest all day and went into the combined run/shoot, the new climax to the pentathlon, in third place.

But despite a good performance in the run/shoot, the 27-year-old dropped down a place and just missed out on his first World Cup medal of the year in today’s (Sunday) competition.

It was Weale’s second best World Cup performance of his career to date, following his bronze medal at Millfield in March last year.

Weale said: “I’m fairly happy with how it went today. It’s been good fun and pretty exciting.

“You can never really tell what’s going to happen with the combined event. But everyone is in the same boat, and it’s all about getting the experience at competitions. I can see the progression I’m making and I am getting there.”

National coach Philipp Waeffler said: “Sam produced a good performance throughout the day today, demonstrating that he has made a successful transition to the new combined event format.”

The British team trains at the Pentathlon GB high performance centre at the University of Bath.

The third women’s World Cup of the season takes place at Szekesfehervar in Hungary in the coming week. Britain has four women in action - Beijing 2008 Olympians Heather Fell and Katy Livingston, currently ranked number one and four in the world respectively, are joined in Hungary by Mhairi Spence and Louise Helyer. The women’s qualifiers are on Thursday 14th May with the final on Saturday 16th May.

Results to men’s World Cup three in Budapest
Gold: Denis Cherkovskis (LAT) 6000 points
Silver: Adam Marosi (HUN) 5944
Bronze: Edvinas Krungolcas (LTU) 5888
4th: SAM WEALE (GBR) 5864
56th: GARETH EVANS (GBR) 4336 (semi-final only)

Posted: Monday 11th May 2009