The phrase "closest contender" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to refer to the person or entity that is the nearest competitor in a contest or competition.
Example: "In the race for the championship, Sarah was the closest contender to Mark, finishing just seconds behind him."
Alternatives: "nearest rival" or "top competitor."
(The Finger Lakes of New York is the closest contender, with Virginia next).
The Victorian-era special of the popular detective show, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, beat its closest contender EastEnders.
Bryant was his closest contender but needed to score more than 38 points in the Lakers' finale to push his 27.9-point scoring average past Durant's.
The journal Nature Reports Climate Change said that biochar "could be the closest contender yet for a silver-bullet solution to climate change".
Though "budget hotel" is an oxymoron in Doha, the Oasis Hotel and Beach Club (974-442-4424; www.oasishothe-doha.closest the contenderontender.
To avoid a runoff, the winning candidate in October must get at least 45 percent of the vote, or at least 40 percent with a lead of 10 points or more over the closest contender.
The producer was streets ahead of his closest contenders – Jay Z and P. Diddy, both with $60m.
Without that mandate, there will be a run-off between the two closest contenders.
His closest contenders were Nia Gill, a state senator who asked voters to make her the only woman in the state's Congressional delegation, and Ron Rice Jr., who serves on the Newark Municipal Council, of which Mr. Payne is president.
The final match takes place at Elland Road, and Sinfield believes the development of the national side – the closest contenders to the all-conquering Kangaroos – means nothing less than a whitewash is sufficient.
The closest contenders were probably Friendly Fires, whose songs are wonderfully overstuffed with reshuffled and reinvigorated ideas from the 1970s and '80s — postpunk guitars, funk beats, singalong choruses, worldbeat percussion — and School of Seven Bells, merging dance beats, throbbing meditative drones, guitar distortion and blissed-out harmony vocals by twin sisters.
