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 (Great Britain), which earned the New Zealander a best-of-three contest for the bronze medal against Tomasz Lamaszewski (Poland).
The Polish rider pushed clear and just held off the fast-finishing New Zealander in the first ride.
Schuler was close to forcing the decider, edged by less than 0.01sec 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 rider Joshua Grieve finished 18th in the four-discipline omnium.
Grieve was 24th in the scratch race and 21st in the tempo, rode superbly for seventh in the elimination, and finished 24th in the final points race, where Great Britain’s Henry Hobbs prevailed.
Jesse Thomson and Sophie Maxwell placed 10th and 20th respectively in the women’s individual pursuit qualifying.
— Allied Media
