An electric first day of action at the Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) saw the first medals of Friuli Venezia Giulia 2023 handed out by European Olympic Committees President Spyros Capralos.
Poland’s Hanna Mazur, 14, won the very first gold medal of the Games in the girls’ short track speed skating 1500m final, seeing off compatriot Kornelia Wozniak by 0.124th of a second to take home the gold. Hungary’s Dora Sqizgeti won bronze as she finished slightly ahead of fellow Hungarian Luca Haltrich in an exciting final.
There was more success for Hungary in the final of the boys’ event as Dominik Major came home quickest. Norway’s Miika Johan Klevustuen picked up his country’s first medal of the EYOF by coming second, while Poland’s good day on the ice continued as Dominik Palenceusz won the bronze medal.
That was the culmination of a thrilling day at the Ice Arena Claudio Vuerich, where the three quarter-finals for the mixed-relay 1500m races where also held during a busy schedule.
There were no more medals handed out on day one, but there was plenty of thrilling sport to watch in both Italy and Austria.
Two matches were played in the boys’ ice hockey in Udine as Germany started the tournament with a 5-4 overtime win over Finland in Group A’s preliminary round opening match. Manuel Schams, Simon Seidl, Elias Pul, David Lewandowski and Dustin Willhoeft all found the back of the net in a high-scoring and exciting encounter.
Group B’s first match later on saw Switzerland see off Latvia 5-1 thanks to a four-goal blitz in the second period, with forward David Bosson scoring twice.
Meanwhile at Spittal’s Eis Sport Arena in the girls’ tournament, three games were played, including two in Group A for their preliminary round. After Finland convincingly beat Austria 5-0 in their opening match, Switzerland held off a fightback from Slovakia to earn a 4-3 victory.
In the later Group B game, Czechia needed a penalty shot shootout to beat Sweden after neither side could find a winner in overtime, following a late Julie Jebousková goal for the Czech side in a 2-2 draw.
Elsewhere, there were qualification rounds for both boys and girls in the snowboard big air and the freestyle skiing big air sections at Ski Area Ravascletto-Zoncolan.
