Brian Cook clinched Hong Kong's first medal of the Asian Games when he stormed to bronze in the men's downhill mountain biking event yesterday. The 20-year-old's medal finish was a bolt out of the blue to all concerned. In a trial run on Saturday, he had only been able to manage the sixth-fastest time. Yesterday, however, the British-born cyclist threw everything he had into a scorching piece of riding to negotiate the testing course at the Khoyai Rimthan Resort in three minutes and 57.65 seconds, pipping Taiwan's Liao Tsung-chieh, who finished fourth. Thailand's P. Kongsamut took gold in 3:43.13 while Takashi Tsukamoto of Japan claimed silver in 3:44.13. Not that Cook was worried about that, though. 'I can't believe it. I'm just over the moon,' a jubilant Cook told Sports Post after bagging his medal on the circuit, which is based in Thailand's Khao Yai National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima Province. 'After finishing sixth fastest in the practice, I knew I would have to do something special. 'It worked out well. I didn't crash at all and didn't have any problems. When I saw my time, I knew I had a chance. 'As soon as I knew I had a medal, I was on the phone to my dad in Hong Kong. 'I think he was more excited about it than I was,' said Cook, the son of an English father and Hong Kong Chinese mother. 'I'm proud to have won the first medal for Hong Kong. It's a great feeling.' Cook's medal win is very much a triumph against the odds. Mountain biking is forbidden in Hong Kong's rugged country parks, and Cook was forced to do much of his training for Thailand on an ad hoc basis. 'It was a real struggle. Because the Government doesn't allow mountain biking in any of the country parks, I had to rely on finding private land. It's not always easy,' the youngster from Tsuen Wan explained. 'I hope this medal will make the people who control the parks think again. 'If this is what we can do with virtually nowhere to train regularly, imagine what we could do if we were able to use some of the country parks. 'The sport has got massive potential in Hong Kong . . . we just don't get much of a chance to show it often,' lamented Cook, who will now be going for another medal in today's mountain bike circuit race. 'Downhill is my specialty but I'll give it my best shot,' he said. Elsewhere yesterday, Hong Kong athletes found it heavy going in the first full day of competition at these 13th Asian Games. At the Thammasat University Sport Complex, judoka Lau Kuk-man was dumped out after just one minute and 35 seconds in to her opening first-round tussle with Vietnam's Kim-vui Nguyen. Nguyen showed Lau no mercy and quickly got on top of her opponent, scoring an ippon to advance to the next round. In the shooting competition, Lee Shek-june failed to qualify for the final of the men's individual free pistol competition, finishing in joint-26th position after posting a score of 534.