JAMIE COOKE is now a marked man in the world of Modern Pentathlon.

The 22-year-old from Shipton Ollife, who trains at the University of Bath, won the 2011 World Junior title in Argentina but was ranked only No.40 heading into the fourth World Cup event of the year in Budapest last week.

That’s all set to change, especially if he can maintain his form into the World Cup Final at Nizhny-Novgorod, Russia in a couple of weeks, after he beat the most high class field assembled in the sport this year with a fantastic display.

After an epic head-to-head in the final run/shoot, Jamie edged Adam Marosi, the London Olympics 2012 bronze medallist, back into second place.¬ Cooke is the best swimmer on the Modern Pentathlon circuit, holding both the short and long course 200m freestyle world records, but he added a third world best in Budapest.

In the second round of shooting, he did not miss once, hitting the target five times in 8.22 seconds to set a new world record. Cooke said: “I am more shocked than anyone. In the shooting, I did not recognise myself.

“I started the run/shoot just behind Adam and I knew I was running well, but I did not want to anger the beast.

“However, my shooting gave me a nine second lead going into the final run and I was just telling myself ‘dont mess this up’.

“At one point, I heard a roar from the crowd and felt it must be Adam coming back at me but I saw my coach on the final corner with about 200 metres to run and he said I had got it. The feeling was unbelievable.

“It’s definitely the peak of my career and a better win than in the World Juniors because it was such a strong line-up.”

In typical style, Cooke gave the rest of the field a start in the fencing when finishing 24th, but he feels there were major signs of improvement even in his worst discipline.

“I had fenced really well in the first half of the competition and then I felt I should have scored a hit which controversially went against me. After that, I let it affect me and it was a disaster as I lost ten bouts in a row.

“But the winner’s score in the fencing was really low (928 points) and that gave me a chance.

“From 24th, I then won the swim, the ride and the combined run/shoot which has really boosted my confidence ahead of the World Cup and, of course, we have the Europeans and the World Championships later in the year.”