WHAT IT TAKES...
TO BE A
MODER N
PENTATHLETE
SPEED, ENDURANCE AND DEADEYE ACCURACY ARE JUST A
FEW OF THE SKILLS REQUIRED IN A SPORT LIKE NO OTHERamie Cooke became
the first British man
to win the Modern
Pentathlon world title
for 25 years with a
stunning sprint finish at last year’s
World Championships in Mexico City.
The 28-year-old from Salisbury was in
third place going into the final stage of
the event, the ‘Laser Run’: laser pistol
shooting combined with a 3.2km
cross-country run, incorporating an
800m race to the finish. At the line
Cooke beat his closest rival, who
had slowed down to celebrate, by a
few millimetres, snatching the title
by breaking the tape. CompetingSharp shooter:
Cooke (left)
takes aimin a sport which combines fencing,
freestyle swimming, show jumping,
shooting and running requires a
unique skillset, endurance stamina by
the bucket load and one hell of a busy
schedule, as Cooke reveals to MF.REGIME
“My weekly routine is packed. I train
at the National Training Centre based
at Bath University, starting at 8am and
often working through until eight at
night.” A typical week of training for
Cooke consists of eight runs (“I double
run on Monday and Friday”), three
swim sessions, a riding session, two
fencing sparring sessions alongside
fencing lessons (four), shooting
sessions (three) and finally two to
three gym sessions.
“We also have physio and
massage appointments and
psychology 'chats',” Cooke says.
“All in all it keeps me very busy,
with the key element of getting the
balance right. The beauty of this
sport is that you can have favourites
depending on how it’s going.” At the
moment Cooke’s favourite discipline
is the show jumping. “The horse is
provided for you at the competition,
which means that we have to get
used to jumping on lots of different
horses – that’s a challenge I enjoy.
The hardest sessions can be some
of the swimming ones, but even they
can be enjoyable in a masochistic
type of way.”J
WHAT IT TAKES