Netherlands cyclists Megan Areans and Gis Schoonvelde made light of the wet weather in Maribor to win gold medals in the girls’ and boys’ time trials on Day Two of the Summer European Youth Olympic Festival.
Heavy rain in the morning forced the delay of both races on the city’s streets, but when they began the Dutch duo were the standout performers.
Arens time of 14:24.66 saw her take the gold medal ahead of Erin Boothman (GBR) and Jente Kiops (NED), while Schoonvelde finished in 12:52.89 with Conor Murphy (IRL) and Benedkt Benz (GBR) in the other medal positions.
10 of the 11 sports on the programme were played on Tuesday and seven sets of medals were awarded at the Poljane Athletics Stadium, where the finals of both the boys’ and girls’ 100m finals were the highlight. Estonia’s Miia Ott took the gold in the girls’ race, before Ylann Bizasene from France won in thrilling fashion in the boys’ final, after setting a new EYOF record with a time of 10.44 in his heat on Monday.
Elsewhere, Roch Krukowski (javelin) and Hubert Troscianka (decathlon) both claimed golds for Poland in their events, while Matyas Zach won the 110m hurdles final. The other gold awarded on day two of the athletics competition was to Hungary’s Bori Rozsahegyi in the girls’ long jump.
There was also success for Hungary at the Pristan Swimming Centre as Vivien Jackl followed up her 400m medley victory on Monday with another gold, this time in the 400m freestyle final.
Kuzey Tuncelli became the second Turkish swimmer in as many days to break an EYOF record on his way to winning gold, as he touched home with a time of 14:54.16 in the boys’ 1500m freestyle. Tuncelli has already achieved the qualifying time for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in this discipline.
Italian Daniele Del Signore also enjoyed a golden day in the pool, after winning the boys’ 100m backstroke, he was part of the Italy team who came home first in the mixed 4x100m freestyle race. Linda Eleonore Roth, Alina Baivych (both GER), Rafael Mimoso (POR) and Aissia Prisecariu (ROU) were the other gold medallists on a busy day of action at the pool.
Day Two also saw the first medals of the week awarded in both artistic gymnastics and judo.
At the Tabor Sports Hall, Great Britain’s trio of Alex Nisconveanu, Jonas Rushworth and Sol Scott won their country’s first gold medal of the week in the boys’ team section, while Italian Tommaso Brugnami won gold in the boys’ individual all around.
In the judo, Georgia won gold medals in the under 50kg and under 55kg boys’ sections, Shota Bachoshvili winning in the former and Merabi Samadashvili in the latter. Patricia Tomankova (SVK) was victorious in the girls’ under 40kg and Marta Beorlegui Oses (ESP) in the under 44kg.
