The world number one and reigning world champion led the way from the first event when he won 25 of his bouts in the fencing and moved ahead of Polivka and Russia's Alexander Lesun, who were joint second.

He continued to consolidate his lead through the swimming and show jumping, where he scored a maximum 1,200 points. 

That meant he went into the run/shoot 24 seconds clear of Lesun in second place with Robert Kasza of Hungary third.

Polivka started the run/shoot 39 seconds behind Marosi in fourth, but battled his way through the field.

Marosi, however, just edged out the Czech in a thrilling race to the finish line to take gold, with Lesun taking bronze.

Britain's Nick Woodbridge took a minute off his personal best in the run/shoot to move from 18th to finish 14th overall.
  
The Beijing 2008 Olympian clocked a time of 11min 01.37sec, the fourth fastest time in the field. 

Woodbridge, 23, said: "This was by far my best combined event.

"In the past I think I’ve been a bit too cautious with the combined, but today I just decided to go for it.

"My fencing was very poor this morning - it just didn’t click - and I was very disappointed with the ride.

"To have the fourth best combined was fantastic.

"I’ve been working on it this season and it was great to pull it off today.

"It gives me something to build on for the rest of the season.

"The home crowd were great here today.

"They helped me on by one or two places on the last lap.”
 
Jan Bartu, the Pentathlon GB performance director, said: "Nick has taken almost a minute off his personal best for the combined event, which is massive.

"We’ve been trying to catch up with the best countries in the combined event and it seems to be happening.  

"Now we’re really looking forward to seeing how the girls go tomorrow."
 
Britain will have a record-breaking eight women among the 36-strong field.

Katy Burke, Heather Fell, Kate French, Katy Livingston, Samantha Murray, Freyja Prentice, Lydia Rosling and Mhairi Spence all qualified from yesterday's semi-final.


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