A WOUNDED soldier who lost the use of his legs finished a respectable eighth in a road cycling race at the Invictus Games.

Martyn Gibbons MBE suffered shrapnel injuries during a mortar attack in Afghanistan in 2007 and battled to regain the use of his legs. He took part in the games as one of the 130 men and women in the British Armed Forces team.

He was up against 18 others in the cycling race.

Father-of-three Martyn, from Bacup, also narrowly missed third place in a multi-terrain driving challenge, off-roading in a Land Rover Discovery and racing in a Jaguar F-Type.

Martyn, who set up Military Mountain Bikers near Lee Quarry, training ex-servicemen and women to teach people how to get off the beaten track on mountain bikes, said: “Both competitions were team efforts and they were really technical, and you really had to be fast.

“The whole thing was mega. I was excited before I went and worked hard to get there, but I didn’t know how good it would be.

“My wife lost her voice she was shouting so much at the TV for me to win.”