Gutsy sixth for Cooper

Anton Cooper went heartbreakingly close to winning a medal in the Olympic men’s mountain bike race today.

The gutsy 26-year-old, who was in bronze medal contention for all but the final few seconds of the 86-minute race, eventually had to be satisfied with sixth.

Cooper has already earned a special place in New Zealand sports lore, having won the Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2014 and the silver, following a thrilling battle with countryman Sam Gaze, in 2018. Strangely this is his first Olympics – he was under the age limit in 2012 and was ruled out by injury in 2016.

Throughout today’s demanding contest, Cooper was never far from the front, but for the last half of the race, 21-year-old Yorkshireman Tom Pidcock led and controlled matters. He was followed by world No 2 Mathias Flueckiger of Switzerland.

Cooper was part of a group of up to five who were jostling for the bronze.

Pidcock won in 1h 25min 14s, a remarkable performance by a man who broke his collarbone when he was hit while out riding in May. Flueckiger was second.

In the end it was the Spaniard, David Valero Serrano who claimed third, 34 seconds behind Pidcock, with Cooper a further 14 seconds back.

The race was full of the greats of world mountain biking and for Cooper, who has never been in the top 15 at a world championship, to muscle his way into that company was some feat.