Rosara Joseph led the way for New Zealand by finishing fifth in the cross country at the mountain bike world championships in Scotland yesterday.
The Wellingtonian achieved the best placing by a New Zealand mountain biker in the cross-country event at a world championships after a torrid battlewith two Canadians over the last two laps in the 34.6km race at Fort William in the Scottish Highlands.
The news was not so good for New Zealand's top male rider, Kashi Leuchs, who did not finish after suffering an asthma attack when he was forced to run a considerable distance after a puncture.
Joseph, who finished 10th last year, has just completed her examinations at Oxford University where she is on a Rhodes Scholarship.
She came into the championships on the back of some tough road cycling races to be on the pace from the outset.
"It was a truly outstanding performance to cap off a big year for Rosara," coach Suzie Pryde said.
"She was in a big battle over the last two laps for fourth to sixth with the two Canadians and they were in touch with the leaders."
Russian Irina Kalentieva won the race in a time of one hour, 44 minutes, eight seconds, with Joseph, a silver medallist at last year's Commonwealth Games, 2m 26s behind.
Of the other New Zealanders, Kaytee Boyd was 27th, Anga MacDonald 40th and Jennifer O'Connor 52nd from the 63 starters.
Leuchs, ranked No 14 in the world, made a strong start in the men's 50km race.
However, he suffered a puncture and was forced to run some distance back to service.
After the change he was hauling in the field but suffered a serious asthma attack and was forced to withdraw.
"Unfortunately mechanical problems can hit you in this sport. Kashi was in superb form but things just conspired against him," Pryde said.
"He is pretty gutted because he knows that he was in the kind of shape to achieve a top results."
Frenchman Julian Absolon, the defending world and Olympic champion, won the race from Switzerland's Ralph Naef.
Marcus Roy was the best of the New Zealanders in 66th, followed by Michael Northcroft in 90th while Eric Drower did not finish.
The downhill competition is today with 16 New Zealanders competing, including 2004 world champion Vanessa Quin.
