UIPM 2016 World Cup #4 - Cooke wins in Hungary

James Cooke of Great Britain became the second athlete in two days to come between Hungary and glory at UIPM World Cup #4. A day after Anastasiya Prokopenko (BLR) consigned Zsofia Foldhazi (HUN) to silver, Cooke (GBR) refused to give the home crowd the gold they craved as he narrowly beat Hungarian duo Adam Marosi (silver) and Bence Demeter (bronze) to the line. Cooke (GBR), who won his first World Cup gold in Hungary in 2013 and added his second success last year in Sarasota (USA), proved his calibre once again after a scintillating Swimming performance and an ice-cool showing on the Shooting range. "The shooting was amazing," said Cooke (GBR) after the medal presentation. "I've been working on that side of things and it's quite nice when these things come together. It's been a solid day. The swim was good and I felt that the pressure was off a bit today. "I'm really pleased with the ride because I fell off in Rome [at World Cup #3] and that definitely knocked my confidence quite a bit. So to ride and to ride well, I was pleased with that. To be able to top it off with a very good Combined, I'm very happy." With the World Cup Final in Sarasota (May 5-8) looming, Cooke was asked how he would keep his momentum going. He said: "We've got two weeks until the World Cup Final and then a few weeks until the World Championships so it keeps on coming but it's going well." Silver medallist Marosi (HUN) said: "I lost again and that was James' second gold medal in Hungary but I don't care because it was very important for the Olympic Games. "The most important competitions for me this year are the World Championships and Rio so those are the ones I'm focusing on now." The day's action began in the pool, where Cooke (GBR) and Gauthier Romani (FRA) prevailed with the best Swimming results. Both athletes raced for the lead from the very beginning but it was Cooke who came out on top. His fastest time was 1:58:32, ahead of closest rivals Romani and Cao Zhongrong (CHN), meaning Cooke led the competition. In the Fencing event, an outstanding performance from Stefan Kollner (GER) saw him lead throughout to take 25 wins overall, including a victory over Pierpaolo Petroni (ITA) in the final bout of the Bonus Round. The two Ukranians, Yuriy Fedechko and Pavlo Tymoshchenko, chased the leader for the duration but were never able to catch up. Cooke (GBR) staged a comeback to finish with 19 wins, keeping him in medal contention after the first two rounds. Marosi (HUN) finished the event with 23 wins, ahead of Fedechko and Tymoshchenko (UKR) who had 22 wins each. In the Riding, it was two other Hungarians, Demeter and Peter Tibolya, who claimed maximum points. Romani (FRA) also performed well, finishing 3rd with only time penalties and staking his claim at the top of the overall leaderboard. Marosi (HUN) and Cooke (GBR) finished securely in 17th and 11th place respectively, and held on to their positions due to strong showings in earlier rounds. In the Combined Event, early favourite Marosi (HUN) began just 3 seconds behind leader Romani (FRA). Cooke (GBR) took an early lead with an outstanding starting performance in the shooting range. Marosi (HUN) and Cooke (GBR) were eventually able to break away from the chasing pack, with the home crowd cheering on the Hungarian. It was only Cooke's quick shooting which seemed to hold off the challenger. In the final moments, it was Cooke's cool head in the range which ultimately won him the contest, while Marosi was a comfortable winner of silver. A fierce battle for bronze ultimately ended with a second Hungarian, Demeter, earning a place on the podium ahead of Petroni (ITA). Romani (FRA) finished 5th with Justinas Kinderis (LTU) completing an all-European top six. Dr Klaus Schormann, President of UIPM, said: "We can say this was a great day for Hungary. Second and third place for Hungary, in front of the Minister of State for Sport, I think that is a good message for the Hungarian government. "This World Cup has shown again that Hungary has a great tradition in Modern Pentathlon but we should also speak about the other nations. We saw some fantastic performances. "The Riding was not easy on this park and there was great quality in the Fencing too. When we look to the Swimming from Cooke, this is a fantastic time. We can say that we finished the 4th World Cup at the highest level and athletes are focusing now on picking up ranking points to compete in the Rio Olympic Games. "I can say this was a wonderfully organised tournament and I would like to thank the athletes for the great performances they have given us." Tomorrow's Mixed Relay, which concludes World Cup #4, will be available to watch via live stream from 15:30 CEST at UIPM's new online TV channel uipmtv.org. For up-to-date results of all competitions go to pentathlon.org.