Cool bronze feat from rider Coo

HANGZHOU — With less fanfare, Patrick Coo secured a bronze medal in men’s BMX racing Sunday, and kept Team Philippines moving forward with only seven days of competition left at the 19th Asian Games .

Coo was lacking in support from the Philippine delegation when he competed at the Chun’an Jieshou Sports Centre cycling course, which is roughly 155 kms away from the epicenter here.

But the 21-year-old BMX rider, born and raised in California, had plenty of fighting spirit in winning the bronze, the seventh for Team Philippines counting those from poomsae, wushu and tennis.

The Philippine delegation also has a silver under its name, courtesy of wushu artist Arnel Mandal, and a gold, courtesy of new Asian Games record holder EJ Obiena in men’s pole vault.

Coo had to bleed for his first Asian Games medal.

“I’m very happy but hurting for sure,” said Coo, who suffered a nasty bruise on his right thigh after crashing in the first moto of the bumpy and lung-busting finale contested by a dozen riders.

“I ripped my pants and got it fixed immediately,” he said after the race won by Japan’s Asuma Nakai, 23, and followed by SEA Games champion Komet Sukpraset of Thailand.

Philippine Olympic Committee president and cycling chief Abraham Tolentino said Coo is just getting started, and is likely to be the new face of BMX racing in the country.

“This could kick off more major accomplishments for Patrick. He’s only 21, so young, and he’s been training seriously and diligently the past year or so under the Olympic Solidarity program,” he said.

“It’s a motivation for PhilCycling to achieve more in the international arena,” the POC president, hands-on in dealing with the Pinoy athletes here, added.

Daniel Caluag, who won the BMX gold for the Philippines in Incheon in 2014 and the bronze in Palembang five years ago, was still at it but failed to win any medal.

Now 36, Caluag got some piece of the action early on but wound up in sixth place, a decent finish considering that he’s coming off a rib injury sustained while training in the United States.

“I feel very happy,” said Coo, who arrived here just four days ago, coming off training camp at the UCI World Cycling Center in Aigle,