GOLD SILVER AND BRONZE FROM SKI MOUNTAINEERING. SILVER IN MEN’S FREESTYLE SNOWBOARDING AND BRONZE IN WOMEN’S FREESTYLE SKIING. ITALY FIRST IN THE MEDALS TABLE
Penultimate day of competition – the most intense so far – for EYOF2023, the European Youth Olympic Festival, with medals in no less than 11 disciplines and still plenty went to Italy.
At the ski mountaineering in Forni di Sopra, the last medals were awarded in the individual competitionsand again the Azzurri have something to celebrate. In the women’s race, the Italians picked up another medal with Melissa Bertolina’s bronze (fifth place for teammate Martina Scola) in the race won by Spain’s Laia Selles Sanchez. Silver to Norwegian Malin Indergaard. In the men’s category it was a double for Italy: gold and silver respectively with Erik Canovi and Marcello Scarinzi. Third was Austrian Silvano Wolf.
In Tarvisio, after yesterday’s giant slalom with the great Italian gold medal of Ludovica Righi, today it was the turn of the boys in the GS. On a perfectly groomed piste helping them get the most out of it, the gold medal went to Slovenia’s Miha Oserban, who was half a second ahead of Norway’s Rasmus Bakkevig and one second ahead of Austria’s Moritz Zudrell. Best of the Italians was Jakob Franzelin with the sixth-fastest time.
Tomorrow the last race for Alpine skiing will be the men’s and women’s Super-G.
The mixed 4×5 km relay (classical and free technique) was the final event of the Nordic skiing programme in Sappada, which has brought so much satisfaction to the Italian medal table so far: The Italian team remained outside the podium (fifth) in this last race, on which Sweden (gold), Finland (silver) and the Czech Republic (bronze) climbed.
In Claut, the semi-finals and finals of curling determined the medal winners in this discipline: The most valuable metal went to Switzerland, who defeated Germany (9:8), while Latvia had an easy game with Sweden in the final for bronze (10:1).
From the Pontebba ice rink came the medals for the women’s free skating. Bosnia and Herzegovina won the gold medal with Lana Galijasevic, who beat Macedonia’s Milena Milojevikj (silver) and Iceland’s Freydis Jona Jing Bergsveinsdottir.
Spectacle guaranteed as always in freestyle snowboarding on Mount Zoncolan: The Czech Vanessa Volopichova won the girls’ event, while the rest of the podium was entirely in Swiss hands with silver from Yuna Scheidegger and bronze from Soha Janett. Silver for Italy with Marcello Grassis, who only has to give in to the very strong Charlie Lane from the UK. Also on the podium was the transalpine Luca Merimee Mantovani.
The freestyle slopestyle / big air skiers and athletes were also in the field. In the women’s category, the Italian Carolina Maria Vitale Cesa won the bronze medal, in a very tight race that ended behind the Finnish pair Lina Haggstorm (gold medal) and Lina Kuivalainen (silver). Among the men, the Swiss Fadri Rhyner took victory ahead of Estonian Stefan Sorokin and Czech Petr Muller.
For men’s hockey, the final is set for tonight at 8pm on the Torreano di Martignacco ice rink with the match between Latvia and Switzerland, with the bronze medal being won by Finland (4-1 to Germany). Finals day in Spittal (Austria) for the women’s teams as well. The bronze medal was won by Finland (3-2 to Sweden) while the final between Slovakia and the Czech Republic is underway.
The ski jump in Planica (Slovenia) saw the last competition with the mixed team competition. The victory went to the very strong Slovenian team, which dominated the competition, leaving Poland (silver) and Germany (bronze) with the remaining places on the podium. Fifth place for Italy.
In the mixed team event for snowboardcross in Piancavallo, gold and silver went both to France with Bulgaria taking bronze.
With two races still to come tomorrow in alpine skiing (men’s and women’s super-G) and biathlon (mixed 4×6 km relay), the lead in the nations’ medal table remains with Italy ahead of France, Austria and Slovenia, who won all six hours.
Tomorrow, the closing ceremony of this successful edition of the EYOF will take place at the Udine Exhibition Centre at 5pm.
