STARS ALIGN FOR RIYADH

Singapore mountain biker takes historic World Cup silver after rivals falter

- Melvyn Teoh

It has been a roller-coaster season for Singapore mountain biker Riyadh Hakim as an early season podium finish was overshadowed by injury and illnesses.

However, the stars aligned for him on May 19, as he clinched silver at the MTB Eliminator (XCE) World Cup in Palangkaraya, Indonesia, after capitalising on his rivals' crashes.

The 25-year-old clocked Imin 42.06sec to finish second behind New Zealand's Lochlan Brown (1:35.71). Austria's Theo Hauser (2:17.76) was third.

Riyadh said: "It really means a lot to me, especially this year, it has been quite a roller-coaster half a year, been through lots of ups and downs.

"I had a really great start to the season in Thailand with a podium finish (bronze at the Thailand Mountain Bike Cup Cross Country Olympic or XCO) but then I had an injury and I had to stay out of training for like almost two weeks and then I fell sick with dengue, so it was really like going down, down, down."

He had competed in the first and second legs of the World Cup series in Paris and Barcelona respectively, but had returned to Asia with a flu which kept him out of training.