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Italian triumph in Banská Bystrica with 47 medals. Bertoni flag-bearer for the closing

EYOF
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Italia Team also dominates at the youth level. Less than a month after winning the medal table at the 2022 Mediterranean Games in Oran (159 medals: 48 golds, 50 silvers, and 61 bronzes), the Italian team also topped the medals table at the 16th Summer European Youth Olympic Festival in Banská Bystrica (Slovakia), reserved for under-18 athletes. The Azzurrini finished with 47 medals (21 gold, 12 silver, 14 bronze), nine more than the previous record of Gyor 2017 (38 medals, 14 gold, 11 silver, 13 bronze). The other nations were distanced: Germany second with 31 medals (9-8-14) and Spain third with 18 (8-6-4).

Volleyball dominated the two EYOF tournaments. After the gold medal three years ago in Baku, the boys again faced Bulgaria, who had already been beaten in the group stage, in the final for first and second place. Once again, the final result was a round 3-0 in favour of the Azzurrini (25-20 25-21 25-23). Coach Battocchio's boys ended the event without losing a set.

Success also in the women's tournament. After the defeat in the opening match, the Italian women volleyball players won all the subsequent matches, also imposing themselves in the final for the gold medal played against Turkey, which they won 3-1 (25-12 27-25 20-25 25-21).

In gymnastics, July Marano won silver in the floor exercise, tied with Germany's Helen Keveric, having performed exercises with the same difficulty. For them, a final score of 13,066 while Amalia Puflea of Romania won gold with 13,200. 

Bronze medal, however, for Arianna Grillo on beam. With an exercise rated 12,900 by the judges, the Azzurrina finished behind Puflea (13,366), her second gold of the day, and Anna Laschevska (UKR - 13,000). Third place also for Tommaso Brugnami on vaulting and Davide Oppizzio on bars. Brugnami scored 14,100 and finished behind Reiman (FIN - 14,333) and Zlatanov (BUL - 14,133). In contrast, Oppizzio finished with 13,033, the same score as Great Britain's Crouch, who took silver due to a higher difficulty coefficient of the exercise. Gold for Israel with Dotsenko (13,633).

Athletics greeted Slovakia with two more gold medals and eleven podiums in total. The day's first success bears Viola Paoletti's signature in the 3000-metre race. The young Azzurrina ran a race at a constant pace, always in the first positions and then stretched out in the last half lap to finish head-to-head with Turkey's Edibe Yagiz (9:25.83), half a second behind: 9:25.34 was Paoletti's time, which also earned her a personal best. The third was Spain's Carla Moreno (9:32.07).

The gold medal also went to the women's quartet in the relay race with increasing fractions, a format in which the four women run the distances of 100, 200, 300 and 400 metres. Alice Pagliarini (100), Sofia Pizzato (200), Valentina Vaccaro (300) and Elisa Marcello (400) outdistanced the Polish quartet by just three hundredths, recording a time of 2'11'27. The third was the Hungarian relay in 2'11'59.

In the Judo Team Event, Italy was beaten 4-3 in the repechage by Israel after defeating the Netherlands 4-1 before conceding 4-0 to Georgia.

Given the unfavourable weather conditions, the closing ceremony will be held inside the Judo Hall and limited to the protocol part without the cultural programme. The flag-bearer of the Italian delegation is swimmer Filippo Bertoni, winner in Banská Bystrica of four medals, three of which were gold (1500 freestyle, 200 freestyle, 4x100 freestyle relay) and one silver (400 freestyle). During the ceremony, the customary handover between the city of Banská Bystrica and Maribor will host the next edition of the EYOF from 23 to 29 July 2023.

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