Published: 18 August 2018
Written by: Sportsbeat
Images: SWpix

Pfeiffer Georgi led the way for Great Britain on day five of the UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships with a fourth-place finish in the women’s points race final.

Georgi had ridden well on day five’s morning session to finish fourth in her heat and came close to securing a medal in the afternoon.

Showing her intentions right from the off in the final, the 17-year-old took plenty of points in the early attacks and was ranked joint-second after four sprints, level with France’s Laura da Cruz.

Georgi also took third place in sprint seven before a crash that took out multiple riders brought a temporary halt to proceedings.

Georgi finished strongly but couldn’t regain her place in the top three, with Italy’s Silvia Zanardi talking gold.

But the appearance in the final is another feather in the cap for Georgi, who added a national title at the HSBC UK National Youth and Junior Track Championships back in July.

The Great Britain Cycling Team began the day looking to add to their medal total of two after Ethan Vernon’s brilliant individual pursuit silver and the bronze gained in the women’s team pursuit.

On the penultimate day of action in Switzerland, Alistair Fielding made it through qualifying in the men’s sprint and then prevailed over Malaysia’s Muhammad Ridwan Sahrom in the 1/16 final.

Next up was a 1/8 final against Qi Liu but the Chinese rider came out on top, with Fielding 0.772 behind.

In the women’s time trial qualifying Great Britain’s Lusia Steele finished 14th, with Germany’s Lea Sophie Friedrich setting a new world junior record in the heats with 33.922 seconds, before winning gold in the final.

In the women’s individual pursuit Elynor Backstedt performed well to finish sixth in qualifying, with Ella Barnwell eighth, in an event won by Italy’s Vittoria Guazzini.

Will Tidball enjoyed a good day in the men’s omnium, where after qualifying third in his heat the teenager finished seventh in the scratch race and 16th in the tempo race.

Better was to follow in the elimination as Tidball held on to finish fourth, seeing him up to ninth in the standings ahead of the final event of the omnium.

Tidball would finish 15th in the points race and 16th overall, as France’s Donavan Vincent Grondin claimed gold ahead of Denmark’s Frederik Wandahl.