Jefferies claims world junior silver in Belfast

ED Jefferies has captured Great Britain's first medal of the World Junior Championships, picking up foil silver in Belfast.

SILVER FOIL: GB's Ed Jefferies picks up world junior foil silver in Belfast 

The 19-year-old, ranked sixth in the GB senior foil rankings, narrowly lost out to Italy's top seed Tommaso Lari 15-13.

Jefferies, who was bidding to become Great Britain's first junior world champion since 1976, was always trailing to Lari in the final and could not manage to overhaul to constant, but narrow, deficit.

The Scot had booked his place in the final with a hard-fought 15-13 victory over the USA's Gerek Meinhardt at the University of Ulster.

Jefferies, who captured World Cup gold in Leszno in December, roared into an early 6-3 lead but the American came back to bring the score to 13-12.

But Jefferies showed superb composure to close out the match and set up the clash with Lari - who defeated team-mate Alessio Foconi 15-9 in an ill-tempered affair in the other semi-final.