Cambridge teenager Alex Schuler came close to earning the first male individual sprint medal for nearly a decade on the penultimate day of competition at the UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships in the Netherlands.

Schuler was edged by less than half a second in both rides in the best-of-three contest for the bronze medal after an outstanding performance at the Apeldoorn Velodrome.

A New Zealand male last won an individual sprint world championship medal in 2016, when Southland’s Bradly Knipe claimed the gold medal in Switzerland.

Schuler dug deep in the best-of-three quarterfinal, beating Italian Thomas Melotto in a deciding third ride to progress to the semifinal.

He lost his semifinal in two straight rides to eventual silver medallist Archie Gill (GBR) which earned the kiwi a best-of-three contest for the bronze medal against Tomasz Lamaszewski (POL).

The Polish rider pushed clear and just held off the fast-finishing kiwi in the first ride. The Cambridge rider was so-close to forcing the decider, edged by less than 0.01 second in the second ride and had to settle for a well-merited fourth placing.

It proved even closer in the gold medal decider, with Korea’s Taeho Choi pipping Gill by a blink of the eye in both rides in an exciting final.

Earlier Dunedin’s Joshua Grieve finished 18^th in the four-discipline omnium. He was 24^th in the scratch race, 21^st in the tempo, rode superbly for seventh in the elimination and 24^th in the final points race where Great Britain’s Henry Hobbs prevailed.

Also Jesse Thomson and Sophie Maxwell placed 10^th and 20^threspectively in the women’s individual pursuit qualifying.

In tomorrow’s final day of competition, New Zealand riders on the schedule comprise Grieve and Dalton Hunter in the Madison, with Hunter returning for the elimination, plus Miles Preena and Schuler in the 1000m time trial.