The 28-year-old Beijing 2008 Olympian, whose twin brother Chris is Leicester City's goalkeeper, produced a terrific run/shoot to climb from seventh place to second.

The University of Bath-based pentathlete becomes the first British man to win an individual medal at a Modern Pentathlon European Championships. 
 
Weale’s success means Britain have accumulated two medals at the Championships so far, following the British women’s trio of Heather Fell, Katy Livingston and Mhairi Spence, who won bronze in the women’s team event yesterday.

Weale, who is ranked 25th in the world and finished 10th at the Beijing Olympics, said: "It felt pretty good to cross the line in second today. I felt a foot taller and there was a real spring in my step when I crossed the line.

"I felt good and quite strong after the semi-final on Friday, but my combined event hadn’t gone so well, so I was a little nervous today. 

"But I thought the final would be a good opportunity to put it right. I thought I was in with a chance after the fencing, but I was a little annoyed with the ride today because I had two fences down.

"Going into the combined event I thought potentially I was in the running for a medal.

"I felt quite confident, but it was a bit of surprise and a relief.

"It’s my first European or World Championship medal, hopefully there will be many more medals to come."
 
Dominic Mahony, Britain's team manager, said: "This is a very significant result for the British team.

"It’s the first of its kind since Richard Phelps won the World Championships in 1993.

"Sam was solid in every element of the combined event today."

Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director, said he was delighted to see a first individual men’s medal by a British athlete at a European Championships.

He said: "This was a fantastic performance.

"It’s what we’ve been working towards for the last 11 years.

"It’s been a tough journey, but I knew we had the potential to get there.

"This is going to be a big morale boost for all of the athletes in the programme.”

Weale produced an impressive finish to his day after going into the final event, the run/shoot, in seventh place 41 seconds behind leader Andrei Moiseev of Russia.

Weale was the third athlete to leave the shooting range on the second shoot, behind Moiseev and David Svoboda of the Czech Republic.

Svoboda had overhauled the Russian going into the third shoot, but Weale followed the Czech out of the shooting range and was comfortably able to stay clear of the chasing pack to win an impressive silver medal.

Tomorrow the women return to action in the team relay competition. Katy Burke, Samantha Murray and Freyja Prentice go for Britain.
 
Weale and Nick Woodbridge are back in action on Tuesday (July 20), along with Jamie Cooke, in the men’s team relay. 


Related stories
July 2010: Bronze for Britain in the European Modern Pentathlon Championships
April 2009: Weale comes to terms with new Modern Pentathlon format