Pavel Trojer confirmed he is one to watch in the Biathlon world as he won his second gold medal of the Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) 2023.
The Slovenian star finished more than 90 seconds ahead of his competitors in the boys’ 12.5km individual event in Friuli Venezia Giulia to make it two golds in three days after his victory in the 7.5km sprint on Tuesday. Slovakia’s Michal Adamov and Guillaume Poirot from France picked up the silver and bronze medals.
Germany’s Julia Tannheimer came home first in the girls’ 10km race, though she was less then 10 seconds ahead of France’s Voldiya Galmace Paulin in what was a tighter finished than in the boys’ event. Ukraine’s Oleksandra Merkushyna won her second medal of the Festival, though had to settle for bronze following her 6km win two days ago.
In the Nordic combined mixed event, Austria came back from a slow start to win the gold medal. The quartet of Laura Pletz, Anja Rathgeb, Maximilian Slamik and Paul Walcher were in fifth place, 46 seconds behind the leaders after two of the eight splits, but ended up winning by 26 seconds with Italy second and Germany third.
In the cross-country sprint classic races, Sweden won four of the six medals on offer in the mountains. Jonatan Lindberg won the boys’ race ahead of Italian Federico Pozzi and fellow Sweden Simon Nordlander. In the girls’ race, Austria’s Heidi Buchar came out just ahead of Swedish duo Minna Mikaelsson and Maja Axelsson in a tight finish to win the gold.
It was France who dominated the snowboard cross finals with gold medals in both the girls’ and boys’ sections. Felicie Leight won the girls’ final ahead of compatriot Lea Casta and Czechia’s Karolina Sperlova, while Leleu Achille saw off Daan Stam from the Netherlands and Germany’s Felix Jurt Schwenkel in the boys’.
There was also gold medal joy for the hosts on a busy day of action as Ludovica Righi pipped Moa Landstroem (Sweden) and Nadine Hundegger (Austria) to gold in the girls’ giant slalom.
The boys’ figure skating came to a very exciting climax with a first gold medal of the EYOF for Israel. Nikita Sheiko put in two wonderful performances to win by nearly two points ahead of Konstantin Supatashvili from Georgia with Naoki Rossi from Austria taking bronze. Sheiko put in a dominant performance in the short programme and despite Supatashvili fighting back in the free programme he held on to take the top prize.
In the girls’ ice hockey Switzerland and Germany played for 6th and 7th places with Switzerland winning 3-2. The second game of the day saw Italy best Austria in a tight 1-0 game to finish in 4th place. Tomorrow will see Finland and Sweden compete for the bronze medal and Slovakia and Czechia go for gold. The boys’ final will also take place with Latvia taking on Switzerland.
The curling round robin stages finished today with Switzerland toping group A and Latvia group B setting up semi-finals in the morning between Switzerland and Sweden and Latvia and Germany.
