From David Powell in Sydney
There is no set menu for the breakfast of champions. When Steph Cook joined Audley Harrison for the first meal of the day at 5.15 here this morning, she had muesli and bananas, he had a fry-up. But their evening drink was the same. Champagne.
Three years after interrupting her career as a doctor to train full-time for a sport at which she was still a novice, Cook succeeded where Britain’s men had failed since modern pentathlon was admitted into the Olympics in 1912. The first Briton to win an individual gold medal, Cook also goes down as the inaugural women’s Olympic champion.
Nobody aware of Cook’s strengths was surprised that she came through from eighth place after four events to win on the final discipline, the run. A former England cross country international, she said beforehand that she had “a bit of a reputation as a runner”. She has even more of one now.
Since Jim Fox led Britain to team gold in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, modern pentathlon has existed on the fringes of British sport. Those within it, though, have become increasingly aware of Cook’s strengths as a runner and now the whole world knows about it.
At the world championships in Pesaro, Italy, in June, Cook pulled up from 25th to ninth on the run. In July, at the European championships in Székesfehévár, Hungary, she raced through from fourteenth place to take the silver. In Mexico City in March, she achieved her first World Cup victory after setting of on the 3,000 metres in fourth place.
Knowing, as she started the run, that the deficit to first place was only 49 seconds, Cook sensed the gold was hers for the taking. “That was probably one of the smaller margins I have made up,” she said. One of the seven in front of her was Kate Allenby, her Great Britain team-mate, who also had an outstanding competition, taking the bronze medal.
If Cook’s victory provided a fitting denouement for this Great Britain team, which goes home with 11 gold medals, Allenby’s medal was no less deserved than the winner’s. Quite apart from the years of dedication she has put in, she helped to campaign for women to be allowed to compete at the Olympics.
As pleased as she was for herself, she was no less thrilled about Cook’s triumph. “She trains so hard, she deserves every second she gains out there on the run,” Allenby said. “I am so proud of her.” As they paraded the Union Flag around the victory lap of the baseball stadium, where the ride and run were held, to share the success meant so much more to each of them than if it had been achieved alone.
Britain could even claim a small part in the silver medal. Emily DeRiel, who finished second for the United States, began to blossom while studying mediaeval English literature at Oxford University, where she was a team-mate of Cook’s. Leading the field going into the run, DeRiel said: “I was waiting for Steph to pass me. In fact I was thinking both my British friends might pass me.” DeRiel was described by Cook as “an honorary Brit”.
Alleny gave up work as a fitness consultant three years ago at much the same time as Cook turned to full-time training, both making their decision courtesy of National Lottery funding. “There is certainly no way I would have been able to do the training to get to this standard without that,” Cook, 28, said.
"It all started off as a bit of a hobby but it has got a bit more serious than that in the last couple of years.” Initially after deciding to put her doctor’s career on hold, she doubted whether she had taken the right step. “I was very worried I had made the wrong decision,” she said. “All my friends were off doing accident and emergency casualty officer jobs and, suddenly, I was out on a limb asking myself what I was doing.”
On Friday, Cook was saying that she would continue train full-time up to the world championships at Millfield, Somerset, next year and indicated that she would perhaps return to medicine after that.
Becoming an Olympic champion, though, can change an athlete’s life. Now, who knows how long it might be before she goes back to being a doctor. “I really do not know what is going to happen after this,” she said yesterday.
With a 7am start yesterday, Cook had to get her eye in early, and did so. She shot a score of 178 for eighth place while Allenby shot 175 for twelfth. Fencing, though, tends to be Cook’s weakest discipline and, on this, she lost ground. Recording ten victories, but suffering 13 defeats, she slipped to fourteenth place while Allenby had a superb competition, winning 14 and losing nine to move up to third.
Third on the schedule was the swimming, Cook beating her personal best by 1.82 seconds to record 2min 26.28sec, holding fourteenth position overall. Allenby timed 2:20.93 to move into second place Elizaveta Suvorova, from Russia. The ride, however, proved a nighmare for Suvorova whose horse refused two of the first three fences and she slipped back to ninth place.
Both Britons rode superbly, having come into modern pentathlon through a Pony Club background. DeRiel took the lead and, with points converted into time before setting out on the run, the American went off with an advantage of five seconds over Allenby.
"The running has always been my strongest event but I knew it was not going to be easy and it was a case of trying to pace it right,” Cook said. “I had to believe I could do it, so I just went out there and just ran - I love running. I cannot believe it, I am almost speechless. I have so many people to thank who have helped get me here.”
