JAMIE COOKE recorded an Olympic record for a swimmer in the modern pentathlon which helped lift him to 14th in the final placings.

His team-mate Joe Choong who had finished third in the swim and was in the silver medal position heading out on the final run/shoot discipline, had a difficult time in the shooting and faded to finish 10th overall.

Cooke, whose family home is in Shipton Oliffe, was ranked world number one heading to the Games but a disastrous fencing section – in which he finished 28th of the 36 competitors – put paid to any medal hopes.

The gold medal went to Aleksander Lesun of Russia who led after the opening fencing discipline.

“The fencing wasn’t very good at all," said Cooke. "It is gutting because you put three years of hard work into this. Fencing has been going really well this year and the World Cups have been really good for me.

“This is just not the best time to have a bad day at the office. I am disappointed but you are defined by your disasters. I recovered as best as I could and the swim went well which I was very pleased with.

“The ride was nice and I was pleased with that and going into the combined, I just wanted to put myself in the best light. Shooting wasn’t amazing but I finished 14th and moved up the standings which was good.

“I have definitely learnt some lessons from this. Joe [Choong] has put himself down a bit but we always say in Bath, he is not your average Joe. He is incredibly talented and if I had half that talent I would be laughing.

“He has come here to his first Olympic Games, he is probably one of the youngest here and he has smashed it. He will be disappointed now but when he goes away and thinks about it he will be so proud of it. He has a massive future.”