The day had started with bleary eyes and a missed alarm call, but it finished with a silver medal for Heather Fell in the modern pentathlon and a cheer in a Devon pub for a woman who almost gave it all up.

Fell had written off her career as an athlete two years ago and ended up having to move in with her parents while she took three jobs, including one as a barmaid, to support herself. She was suffering with shin splints and a loss of form that led to UK Sport cutting off her funding. But the regulars at the Plume of Feathers in Princetown, near Tavistock, kept pushing their favourite barmaid, with the wide smile and sunny disposition, not to give up - and now they will be toasting the woman who had a change of heart and decided to “give it just one more shot”.

“I wasn't abandoned,” Fell said. “But, in one way, losing funding did give me a kick up the a***, if I can put it that way, that maybe I needed. I am so glad I kept going. A couple of years ago, I had a lot of injuries and couldn't get the results, and I was thinking about just giving it all up. But then I started to improve and I thought I would give it one more shot. I am really glad now that I did.

“It is absolutely fantastic. Even when we were warming up, we could hear the British people in the crowd cheering us. It was wonderful. We can't believe that people came this far across the world just to see us compete.”

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Doreen and Nick Fell, her parents, were among those who had made the journey. They flew on Thursday to see their daughter perform at an Olympics they never thought she would reach. But a bad attack of jet lag meant that they slept through their alarm and missed the start of proceedings as their daughter went into the shooting, the first event of the day, which started at 8.30am. “They overslept and missed the start, so I was wondering where they were,” Fell said. “But they were there for everything else and they will have loved it all.”

There was one more visitor from Britain who turned up to see Fell perform as Gordon Brown called in to watch the fencing, which turned out to be the Briton's best performance of the day. She won 20 of her 35 duels, a result that helped to push her up the rankings to second place, the position from which she started her final event, the 3,000 metres.

Fell and Katy Livingston, her team-mate, were outsiders for medals at the start of the Olympic competition, but kept up a consistent assault throughout the day. Livingston is ranked No4 in the world, but could finish only seventh overall at the National Stadium in Beijing.

Fell will have been reminded that Britain has a history of plucky outsiders coming through in the final 3,000 metres event to steal gold. Stephanie Cook, the Scottish doctor, made up a 49-second deficit to take gold at the Sydney Games in 2000.

Fell, 25, had only to find 19 seconds to overtake Lena Schöneborn, of Germany, for the top prize and the woman from Tavistock is a serious runner, who believed that she had a terrific chance of adding to Britain's haul of gold medals.

However, the task, in Beijing's 30C (86F) heat and 50 per cent humidity, proved beyond the Briton. She stole nine seconds from her opponent, but the German stoically ground out her 3,000 metres, never looking back to see if Fell was closing the gap.

But it was still a delightful performance from Fell, whose comeback from the brink of an early retirement is now justified and has set her wondering whether she needs another career review, this time to decide whether she will compete at the London 2012 Games. The regulars at the Plume of Feathers will be voting right now.

Best of British

Great Britain's women have been among the medals since women's modern pentathlon was introduced to the Olympics in 2000.

2000, Sydney: Stephanie Cook takes gold for Britain in the first Olympic women's modern pentathlon and the Britain team dominate the medals, with Kate Allenby winning bronze.

2004, Athens: Georgina Harland takes the bronze medal. Kate Allenby finishes eighth.

2008, Beijing: Silver for Heather Fell. Katy Livingston finishes seventh.