The 26-year-old capped a terrific performance on home soil to capture bronze, with fellow Briton Nick Woodbridge coming home in eighth.
 
It gives a big boost to both of their campaigns to qualify for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, earning additional points that push them up the Olympic qualifying ranking list.

 

A British male Modern Pentathlete has not competed at the Olympics since Richard Phelps in 1996.
 
Weale, who is originally from Yeovil and trains at the Pentathlon GB high performance centre at the University of Bath, said: “I’m delighted to get on the podium, especially with the high standard of competition that was here.
 
“Hopefully this is the first of many medals.

 

"I’m still only 26, so I can build on this.

 

"There will be a lot more World Cups and hopefully Beijing ahead of me.
 
“I can’t get too excited just yet though, but it’s looking good.

 

"I’ve been up and down with injuries in the last few years, but I feel as though I’ve improved a lot this year and this is definitely a step forward for me.”
 
At the end of 12 hours of fierce competition across the five disciplines, the medals finally came down to a 3,000 metres run in a torrential downpour.
 
Weale went into the race in fourth and caught third placed Michal Michalik of the Czech Republic after 500m, but was then caught himself by Italian Nicola Benedetti after 1,000m. They matched each other stride for stride, overtaking Dzmitry Maliakh of Belarus, who had been second, with about 600m remaining.
 
Weale put in a determined sprint to try to break the Italian’s spirit 500m from home, but Benedetti reeled him back in and then passed him with just metres to spare to take silver.
 
Weale said: “I made the decision to go with 500m to go, but I knew Benedetti would be strong.

 

Jan Bartu, the performance director of Pentathlon GB, said: “This was one of the toughest days for athletes that I have ever seen.

 

"Both Sam and Nick demonstrated a high standard today and I’m unable to say they failed in anything.
 
“There were ups and downs for them, but they kept going and maximised their potential in their strongest events.
 
“There’s still a long way to go to Beijing, but if they keep competing this way I have no doubt they will make it,” he said.
 
 Weale’s run of 9:49.14 earned him 1044 points to finish on 5380 points.

 

Polivka netted 5392 and Benedetti 5384.

 

Woodbridge finished with a total of 5188.
 
Weale started the day brightly in the tense atmosphere of the shooting range.

 

He produced a consistent shoot, with none of his shots falling outside the nine circle.
 
The Somerset pentathlete shot 185 from a maximum 200 for 1156 points and fifth place after the first discipline.

 

He ended his shoot well, hitting 47 from a possible 50. 
 
Weale and Woodbridge both kept up their challenge in the second discipline, the fencing.

 

Both Britons won more bouts than they lost, with Woodbridge scoring 20 wins and 15 defeats for 880 points and Weale scoring 18 and 17 for 820 points.
 
Both Britons are strong, competitive swimmers, and both were in the fastest heat for the third modern pentathlon discipline, the 200m freestyle.
 
Weale came fourth in the heat in 2:04.00 – seventh-hundredths of a second faster than his semi-final swim. T

 

That earned him 1312 points, taking his total to 3288.
 
It meant with three of the five disciplines complete, Britain’s two finalists were both in the top six, with Weale fifth and Woodbridge sixth.

 

Polivka remained at the head of the field on 3416 points.
 
The equestrian element can be unpredictable, with lots drawn to pair athletes with horses, and the riders only having 20 minutes to warm-up with their allocated horse.
 
Weale  drew a five-year-old grey gelding called Max.

 

The pair hit five fences, including the last three, as well as over-running the time by three seconds, leading to a total of 152 penalties for 1048 riding points.
 
But Woodbridge and Weale then watched two of the athletes that had been ahead of them going into the ride both come unstuck in the show jumping arena.

 

First Hungary’s Viktor Horvath, who been fourth, could only muster 864 points from the riding, then David Svoboda of the Czech Republic, who had been third, had an even worse ride, scoring just 352 points.
 
Polivka dropped down to second overall with a score of 1032, total 4448, and Meliakh produced a terrific round, sustaining just 56 penalty points to return to the top of the leader board with 4524 points.
 
Michel Michalik of the Czech Republic produced a strong round, scoring 1116 points, to leapfrog Weale and Woodbridge, moving into third place.
 
But with just the 3k run remaining, the Brits were in fine fettle - Weale had climbed to fourth overall and Woodbridge was in fifth.

 

Tomorrow five British women are in action in their final.

 

They are Heather Fell, Georgina Harland, Katy Livingstonn, Mhairi Spence and Lindsey Weedon.