The world number three rounded off his campaign with a terrific run/shoot to climb from fourth to first.

 

He topped the podium with a total of 6,136 points to win his first individual world title.

 

He said: “It’s an incredible story because I had a very serious accident three years ago and step by step in the last years I have grown up.

 

"This year I have had the perfect season. I have medalled in three out of three World Cups, the Euro Champs and now this is the best – the World Champs.

“In Hungary we are 100 per cent a strong nation for Modern Pentathlon – our secret is lots of training and hard work.

“I love London and I hope we can meet again in three years time at the Olympic Games.”

David Svoboda of the Czech Republic had to settle for his second successive World Championship silver medal while Dmytro Kirpulyanskyy of the Ukraine won bronze.

Svoboda said: “This is a fantastic feeling for me because last year in Budapest at the World Championships I was also second and now a year later I am again on the podium.

 

"It’s perfect for me.

“I enjoy the new format – it is new for all pentathletes.

 

"All season up and down up and down, so I didn’t expect these Championships to be so good.

 

"I am happy, very happy. I silently believed I could do it.”

Kirpulyanskyy said: “Before the combined event I was seventh and I thought if I got into the top eight this would be good but when I saw I had a chance to be in first I didn’t want to miss that opportunity.

“I ran the last kilometre in my best time, but the first and second kilometre were not good in the run but good in the shoot. I missed one shoot the whole race – 16 shots for 15 targets.

 

"Other guys shoot bad but run good.

 

"In my case better shoot than run.”

Britain’s pentathletes, Nick Woodbridge and Sam Weale, fished 13th and 29th respectively.

The Hungarian team of Marosi, Robert Nemeth and Peter Tibolya took gold in the team event, with the Czech Republic winning silver and Lithuania taking bronze.

The British team of Woodbridge, Weale and Steven Mason came seventh.

Woodbridge said: “This atmosphere today and feeling I’ve had is like what I got at the Olympics – it’s great.

 

"This experience massively helps with preparation for London 2012. When people say, ‘How do you feel about competing in front of a home crowd in London?’, I wasn’t really convinced, but after coming here and experiencing a home crown this size, London 2012 is going to be massive.

 

"It got me through the fence today – I reckon the crowd got me an extra three or four hits."