GB teams edged out of World pentathlon medals in China

Weale, Woodbridge and Fell (right) were part of the 2008 Olympics team

Britain's women emulated their male counterparts with fourth place in the team relay at the modern pentathlon World Championships in China.

The trio of Katy Burke, Heather Fell and Freyja Prentice finished just outside the medals in a repeat of last year's team relay in London.

They had to recover from a slow start to the day after finishing fifth out of 10 teams in the fencing.

Britain were 20 points behind China and a strong Russian team took the gold.

"The Russians were magnificent, there were unbeatable," said Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director.

"We just couldn't generate enough energy in the fencing, like many other teams. It was a fight to get through close to the medal positions."

Following their disappointing display in the fencing, Britain fought their way up the field with the third fastest swim and progressed to fourth place overall with a solid performance in the ride.

Olympic silver medallist Fell produced a strong performance in the run/shoot but could not overhaul the five-second deficit.

It was a similar story for British trio Jamie Cooke, Sam Weale and Nick Woodbridge in the men's event on Monday.

They were narrowly beaten into fourth, 22 points and less than five seconds behind the Russian team that took the bronze.

The British team had been in contention for a medal in Chengdu throughout the day and were ahead after the ride.

Russia's vastly experienced 2008 world champion Ilia Frolov pulled away in the deciding run to capture the bronze.

Britain, featuring 19-year-old Cooke in his first World Championships alongside 2008 Olympians Weale and Woodbridge, were seventh after the fencing discipline.

But they comfortably produced the best swimming time to move up to second place and were in top spot after the show jumping.

Cooke, 19, was just ahead of Frolov with less than 300m of the final run in Chengdu remaining.

606: DEBATE Discuss pentathlon issues

But Frolov, ranked fifth in the world, 61 places ahead of the young Briton, surged clear to take the honours.

---

2010 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS MEN'S RESULTS

Gold: Belarus (Mihail Prokopenko, Mikhail Mitsyk, Dzmitry Meliakh) - 6132 pts

Silver: Korea (Hwonho Jung, Dong-hun Nam, Soengjin Kim) - 6108 pts

Bronze: Russia (Andrei Moiseev, Ilia Frolov, Aleksander Lesun) - 6026 pts

Fourth: Great Britain (Jamie Cooke, Sam Weale, Nick Woodbridge) - 6004 pts

2010 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WOMEN'S RELAY RESULTS:

Gold: Russia (Polina Struchtkova, Evdokia Gretchichnikova, Ekaterina Khuraskina) - 5374 pts

Silver: France (Ameilie Caze, Elfie Arnaud, Elodie Clouvel) - 5214 pts

Bronze: China (Chen Qian, Miao Yihua, Zhang Ye) - 5166 pts

Fourth: Great Britain (Katy Burke, Heather Fell, Freyja Prentice) - 5086 pts