JAMIE COOKE, from Shipton Oliffe, continued his excellent 2013 form by finishing sixth in the Modern Pentathlon World Cup Final in Russia on Saturday.

Cooke’s young GB team-mate Joe Evans finished just one place behind in seventh at the sport’s biggest competition since the London 2012 Olympics.

Their performances followed the seventh place achieved by Mhairi Spence, Britain’s reigning world champion, in the women’s competition on Friday.

Cooke went to the World Cup Final in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod after taking gold at the last World Cup round of the year in Hungary three weeks ago. The 22-year-old, who won the World Junior Championships in 2011, clawed his way up the field in the run/shoot after going into the final disciplines in 14th place, 41 seconds off the lead.

Nineteen-year-old Evans, competing at his first World Cup Final after taking bronze on his World Cup debut in Palm Springs in February, had gone into the run/shoot in third.

Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director, said: “Jamie and Joe are achieving top international standard performances.

“This is a dream start to the Rio Olympic cycle for the programme.”

Cooke, whose performance was his best at a World Cup Final, said: “I’m pretty happy with that, it was better than I expected after the fencing.

“It was a good way to round off the World Cup series. I had a really good swim, a good ride and a good combined today.”

Cooke’s meagre 11 wins in the fencing had put him 34th with just 664 points. Russia’s Ilia Frolov won 26 bouts to lead the competition.

Cooke’s speedy 1:52.80 for the 200m freestyle was the second fastest time of the day – bettered only by Egypt’s Amro El Geziry. It earned Cooke 1,448 points and saw him move up to 23rd overall.

Cooke then went clear in the show jumping, only missing out on the perfect score with the deduction of four time penalties. His ride gave him 1,196 points, putting him 14th overall.

Cooke then battled his way through the field in the run/shoot to take sixth, 40 seconds behind the winner. Evans crossed the line six seconds later.

2013 World Cup Final results – Gold: Valentin Prades (FRA) 5,920pts; Silver: Justinas Kinderis (LTU) 5,900pts; Bronze: Adam Marosi (HUN) 5,896 pts. 6th: Jamie Cooke (GBR) 5,760 pts; 7th: Joe Evans (GBR) 5,736 pts.