Next year, he aims to win.
The Mt Aspiring College pupil also hopes to win a national title in the New Zealand series, having previously had first and second placings.
Wright (15) began mountain bike riding at age 10 while living in Rotorua and ''just took to it like a duck to water. He just wanted to ride his bike all the time'', his father, Scott, said.
The family moved south to Wanaka a couple of years ago and the vast network of off-road bike trails in the Upper Clutha area has enabled Paul Wright to develop his talent even further.
He trains five days a week, usually with other promising mountain bikers from the college. Sessions range from half an hour of sprints, to long-distance rides of more than three hours.
For the past few months he has followed training programmes from coach Val Burke, who said Wright had ''heaps of natural talent and ... the drive to do what it takes to succeed''.
That drive was evident when he managed a top-10 finish in the under-17 age group at the Oceania mountain bike championships in Tasmania in March, despite riding with several broken ribs - an injury he sustained while training for the event.
His ninth placing was ''a bit of a setback'' after finishing fourth last year, he said.
His performance at the recent Epic race at Lake Hawea - where his fellow competitors were mostly adults - exceeded his expectations.
''I kind of wanted to do top-10 because I know someone that used to hold the record and I wanted to beat his time.''
He fulfilled that goal comfortably, achieving his open men's third place in 5hr 3min 47sec, 3min faster than the earlier record.
''It wasn't sprinting like national races,'' Wright said of the event.
''This was long and steady, but it was still really hard.''
FAST LANE
Name: Paul Wright (15).
School: Mt Aspiring College.
Sport: Mountain biking.
Achievements: Third in open men's 95km classic race at Contact Epic mountain bike event; first and second placings at national championships; two top-10 placings at Oceania championships.
