Daniel Pedranzini completed a remarkable personal week at Bakuriani 2025 by winning his third individual gold medal in Cross Country Skiing.
The 17-year-old Italian finished 0.10 seconds ahead of compatriot Luca Pietroboni in the Boys’ Sprint race today (15 February) to make it a hat-trick of wins alongside his 10km and 7.5km victories earlier in the Winter European Youth Olympic Festival. Kalle Tossavainen of Finland came third.
Pedranzini and Pietrobini’s displays at the Bakuriani Biathlon Course helped cement Italy’s second place in the medal table, behind France who have won the same amount of gold medals (five), but 18 in total compared to Italy’s 13.
In the Girls’ Sprint final, less than one second separated the top three as Nina Cantieni (Switzerland) took gold ahead of Czechia’s Eliska Polonska and Estonia’s Gerda Kivil.
Spain’s Unai Lopez Sousa was the star of the snowboarding show once again, winning the Boys’ Big Air competition to go alongside his Slopestyle gold from earlier in the week.
The Spaniard finished ahead of Ugo Pirolli from France in second and Germany’s Damian Millinger in third.
On a memorable day for Great Britain, Emily Rothney produced a stunning final jump in the Girls’ Big Air to take gold, and that came shortly after Sandra Caune had blown her competition out of the water in the Girls’ Freeski Big Air with ah uge score of 170.50.
Aono Pordie Okiniwa (France) won silver and Janina Walz (Germany) bronze in the Snowboard, while Simona Revjagin (Estonia) and Estrid Fahlen (Sweden) took to the podium in the Freeski.
The Boys’ Freeski Big Air saw the same three athletes finish on the podium as had in the Slopestyle competition, albeit in a different order.
Austria’s Benjamin Lengger was victorious with all three of his jumps scoring 89 or better to improve on his silver medal in Slopestyle, ahead of Sweden’s Victor Knutsen who swapped bronze for silver and Switzerland’s Viktor Alexandar Maksyagin who had to settle for bronze after winning gold earlier in the week.
The highlight of the final day at the Batumi Ice Arena came in the last race, as Hungary’s mixed relay team stormed to the gold medal by setting the EYOF record for the third time this week ahead of France and Turkiye. The team of Mihaly Arendas, Bence Benedek Kun, Flora Kiss Gebora and Natasa Z.Molnar’s time of 2:50.253 was 0.354 quicker than their efforts in the semi-final.
In the Boys’ 1000m final, Filippo Pezzoni (Italy) won his second goal medal of the week, finished ahead of fellow Italian Alessandro Picco in second and Berat Efe Dal, whose bronze medal was Turkiye’s first of the EYOF. Ukrainian Mariia Khokhelko won the Girls’ 1000m race, beating Lisa Victoria Ngo Mouaha (France) and Natasa Z.Molnbar (Hungary) to the gold.
Finally, Slovakia and Switzerland will contest the Boys’ Ice Hockey gold medal match tomorrow, after they beat Czechia and Ukraine respectively.
