PATRICK Bren Coo kicked off his campaign to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics with a silver medal finish in the Indonesia BMX 2023 Round 1 at the Pulonas International BMX Center in Jakarta on Sunday.
“It was very, very close to the gold, but it’s racing,” said the Filipino-American Coo, the Asian Juniors champion in 2021. “But it’s racing, you know what it is.”
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Indonesia’s Gusti Bagus Saputra won in 33.919 seconds, with Coo finishing two tenths of a second behind. Another Indonesian, Rio Akbar, took the bronze in 34.346.
Eleven riders raced in the final with Indonesia qualifying five more riders, South Korea with two and Thailand with one.
“It was so hot and was super hard to cool down,” said Coo, adding it was conditions were tougher due to the short interval between the motos, quarterfinals and finals.
“We were given only some 15 minutes break in between races, unlike in other races and in the US where there are breaks are one hour or more.”
Coo, who turns 21 on March 17, earned 86 International Cycling Union points out of the possible 100 points.
Up next for Coo, whose family is Ilonggo, will be the Thailand BMX Cup 2, also a C1 UCI race that offers ranking points, on March 19.
Coo and Daniel Caluag are hoping to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Caluag, who competed in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, is focused on securing a ticket to Paris from the Hangzhou 19th Asian Games in September.
Caluag, 36, won the country’s only gold medal in the Incheon 2014 Asian Games and also owns an Asian Games bronze medal from Jakarta 2018 and Southeast Asian Games gold medal from Naypyidaw 2013, silver from Philippines 2019 and gold from the Singapore 2013 Asian championships.
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