JAMIE COOKE, the world ranked number one, produced another impressive performance to claim a top 10 finish in the 2016 Modern Pentathlon World Championships in Moscow as Frenchman Valentin Belaud snatched gold after a scintillating run-shoot.

Cooke, who was denied a place on Team GB at London 2012 despite earning an Olympic qualification, will head the men's team for Rio when it is announced on June 8.

Cooke, whose family home is in Shipton Oliffe and who trains at the University of Bath, is enjoying his best year in the sport that combines fencing, swimming, horse riding, running and shooting.

He has already gained two World Cup victories this year in Kecskemét, Hungary and Sarasota, Florida.

He put up another world class display in Moscow remaining in the top 10 throughout the day, and scoring 1,485 points just 29 points adrift of world champion Belaud.

The day started in the pool where some blistering performances saw five athletes break the two-minute barrier. In his favourite discipline, Jamie posted the second quickest overall time of 1min 57.57sec.

With the competition representing the last opportunity for athletes to try and qualify for the Rio Olympic Games, Jamie finished the fencing phase in 13th after 17 victories and 17 defeats.

An extra point in the bonus round meant he moved up to finish the morning in ninth.

Jamie then produced an impeccable round on his allocated horse, Ippomey, to pick up 300 points in the riding phase. With some of his rivals faltering, this saw the Brit move up to fifth ahead of the combined run/shoot event, 36 seconds behind the leader, Egyptian Omar El Geziry.

In a thrilling finale Jamie was right in the middle of this pack, eventually crossing the line in ninth, just nine seconds away from fourth place.

Meanwhile, Belaud snatched gold from home favourite Aleksander Lesun on the final 800m loop with South Korea’s Jinhwa Jung securing bronze.

Pentathlon GB’s Men’s head coach Marian Gheorghe was extremely pleased with Jamie’s performance, saying: “This was a very tough competition with the highest quality field as it was the last chance for athletes to qualify for the Olympics.

“It has also been a very competitive and intensive season with events since February so we were pleased to see Jamie in such good form all day. Our objective for the World Championships for Jamie was to secure Olympic qualification and we succeeded with that really well.

“To finish ninth in the world was an excellent achievement and Jamie should be very proud. We now have two months before Rio where we can focus on final preparations. We want to build upon Jamie's recent form and performance today to give him the best chance of success at the Olympic Games. "