The second medal for the Italian team at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole-Trentino comes from Downhill, following the gold conquered on Wednesday, August 26 in the Team Relay. The morning of racing at Daolasa di Commezzadura, on the legendary Black Snake, opened with Filippo Gilardino's bronze in the Men's Junior Downhill.

Coming off the silver medal he won at the European Championships in Bulgaria, the 17-year-old from Ivrea has tackled the Black Snake in the best possible way, despite the track being made even more treacherous by rain that fell Friday evening.

Gilardino stopped the clock at 3:48.647, beaten only by Swiss rider Raoul Schneeberger, who took gold in 3:47.477, and British rider Felix Griffiths, who claimed silver in 3:47.927. Fellow Italian Thomas Bruno finished in twenty-third place.

“I'm thrilled. I didn't realize I was going that fast and didn't think it was a run worthy of a medal. Then, as the other athletes came down, I started to realize what had happened. I broke my chain during the descent, but I managed to finish anyway. Racing at home is magnificent and this fantastic track gave me a huge boost", Gilardino said immediately after the race.

Gilardino also received congratulations from the President of the Italian Cycling Federation, Cordiano Dagnoni, who was present in Val di Sole to support the Italian team.

The Women's Junior Downhill world title went to Australian Tilly Boadle, who managed to handle the difficult track conditions perfectly. Boadle stopped the clock at 4:13.323, ahead of American Aletha Ostgaard (4:20.959), who dominated the World Cup season, and New Zealander Indy Deavoll (4:30.218), who took bronze despite a crash.

Italy's sole competitor, Rebecca Bruno, finished in nineteenth place, hampered by two crashes in the upper section of the track. “I learned a lot from this first World Championships. The track was very physical and slippery. Between training and qualifying, I wasn't able to do many runs. I'm disappointed with the result: I'll aim to return to the World Championships in the future to do better”.

The Downhill program will continue on Saturday afternoon, August 29 with the Elite races. The women will take to the track at 1:10 PM, followed by the men at 3:00 PM. Italy will field European Champions Loris Revelli and Gloria Scarsi, but the support of the local crowd will also go to Veronika Widmann and Eleonora Farina, competing in the final race of her career. The rider from Pietramurata will hang up her helmet after this afternoon's race on her home track.