Woodbridge, a 25-year-old from Shropshire who is officially 30th in the world, competed above his ranking in a competition split between the venues of the Crystal Palace national sports centre and the Olympic facility at Greenwich Park.

The Beijing Olympian and 2004 World Youth champion scored 5,632 points to finish behind Hungary's winner Robert Kasza, who earned a coveted Olympic qualification place for his country with 5,696 points, and Russian silver medallist Aleksander Lesun, who finished with 5,644.

Cooke, who trains with Woodbridge at the Pentathlon GB High Performance Centre at the University of Bath, also put in a strong all-round performance in what was his first World Cup final.

"It's fantastic," said Woodbridge.

"Especially to do it at the Olympic venue.

"I felt so nervous when I came here, but today I felt really relaxed. I always feel I compete well in front of a home crowd.

"I've won two World Cup medals before, but to win one at a World Cup Final is a bit special. It's definitely the best medal of my career.

"When I crossed the finish line I thought 'this is really good, but it's next year that really matters'."

Cooke (pictured), who scored 5,536 points, was also pleased with his performance, particulary the swim which had enabled him to climb to fifth place overall after two disciplines.


His time of 1min 54.60sec for the 200 metres freestyle took more than a second off his own modern pentathlon world record.

"I'm really, really happy with how it went today," he said.

"The crowd were like a new set of legs for me at the end of the run.

"I wanted to come here purely for the experience, to get as many competitions under my belt as I can.

And he said Britain's pre-event 16-day training camp at altitude at Font Romeu in the Pyrenees had paid dividends.

"It was pretty tough in Font Romeu, but it paid off," he said.

"The venue here [Greenwich Park] is stunning and I'm going to work as hard as I can to try to get to the Olympics."

Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director, said: "It was a fantastic ending to the day.

"They've worked so hard and the effort they have put into training has paid off."

Woodbridge went into the run/shoot in third place, 10 seconds behind the then leader Jinhwa Jung of South Korea.

The Briton dropped down to fourth during the second shoot, but battled his way back to take a medal.

Cooke went into the run/shoot in 10th, but climbed to ninth.

Today the British trio of Heather Fell, Freyja Prentice and Mhairi Spence contest the women's World Cup Final.

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