Mountain biking: Cole achieves downhill goal

Cameron Cole (Christchurch) was second two years ago, wanted the Oceania downhill title, and was prepared to take risks to stand at the top of the men's elite podium yesterday.

He had won a junior Oceania title in 2006 and wanted the elite title to add to his collection.

"I took a few risks and they paid off. My run just felt fast," he said after winning the gold medal.

Cole scorched down the steep slopes on the Signal Hill course in 2min 39.15sec to become the first rider to break the 2min 40sec barrier on the course.

Nathan Rankin (Levin) was second in 2min 41.03sec, Wyn Masters (New Plymouth) third in 2min 45.01sec and Kieran Bennett (Nelson) fourth in 2min 45.60sec.

"It is a mental attitude that is needed to take risks", Cole (22) said.

"When you push yourself to the limit you always roll the dice.

"You push your tyres and the suspension on your bike, and yourself to new heights."

Cole knows it is always a risky gamble because he only got back on his bike two months ago after suffering a knee injury late last year.

Cole's best performance at the Oceania senior championships in the past was twelfth at Nelson two years ago.

"It's given me a lot of confidence for this year's World Cup races in the northern hemisphere."

Cole started riding BMX bikes at the age of four and first proved his big-match temperament by winning three junior national BMX titles before switching to mountain bikes nine years ago.

He proved his credentials in the international arena when he won the world junior downhill mountain bike title in Rotorua in 2006.

Cole is now a hardened professional rider with the Maxi team in the United States and his professionalism was demonstrated by the way he handled the tricky Signal Hill course.

Cole is nifty on the pedals and demonstrated this on the dry and fast Signal Hill course by the way he negotiated the tight turns, rocky parts, tricky jumps and long drops.

That was where Dunedin's Justin Leov (25), who is ranked sixth in the world, came to grief when he got a flat tyre on his front wheel that put him out of the race.

Rankin (30), the five times national elite champion, scorched down the slopes to collect the silver medal despite suffering with sore ribs from a crash during practice on Saturday.

It has been a successful championship for Masters who added a bronze medal on the downhill to his gold medals on the hill climb and the four-cross.

The best Otago performance was from Matt Scoles (Alexandra), who finished eighth in 2min 48.11sec.

He was third at the world junior championships in 2007.

Blenheim doctor Harriet Harper (28) dominated the elite women's race and won by nine seconds in 3min 07.36sec from Rotorua's Gabrielle Molloy (3min 16.25sec) and Australians Sarsha Huntington (3min 28.14sec) and Holly Baarspul (3min 32.62sec).

Harper, who studied at the University of Otago, started mountain biking when she was a medical student in 2004.

She finished eleventh at a World Cup in Quebec in 2008.

She got a flat tyre on the qualifying round and finished fifth and was determined to punch it hard on the medal run.

She was apprehensive until she had negotiated the rock jump.

"It is a blind jump into a pile of rocks, she said. You must point your bike in the right direction."

Huntington (30), from Brisbane, finished the championships with gold medals in the dual slalom and the four-cross and a bronze in the downhill.

Her husband Randal Huntington won the gold medal in the masters 2 event.

George Brannigan (Hastings) won the junior men's title in 2min 45.63sec from Jed Rooney (Oamaru) 2min 48.38sec and Troy Brosnan (Australia) 2min 48.92sec.

Louis Hamilton (Rotorua) won the junior men's under-17 title in 2min 55.57sec from Troy Stewart (Alexandra) 2min 56sec.

Reon Boe (Queenstown) won the senior men's title in 2min 50.42sec.

Other Otago riders to reach the podium were Neil White (Queenstown), third in the masters 1 race, and Georgia Wight (Alexandra), third in the open women's grade.