Italia Team won the medals table at the 17th edition of the European Youth Olympic Festival in Maribor (Slovenia) reserved for Under-18 athletes. The Azzurrini finished with 46 medals (16 gold, 18 silver and 12 bronze), one shy of last year’s edition when they scooped 21 gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze medals in Banska Bystrica. In the evening there was the closing ceremony featuring the handover of the torch between the Slovenian city and Skopje, the North Macedonian city that will organise the 2025 edition of the summer EYOF.

On the clay of the Branik Tennis Club, Vito Antonio Darderi defeated Austria’s Thilo Emil Behrmann 7-5, 6-1 to win gold in the male singles. After a hard-fought first set, which saw the Italian find the break at the key moment, Darderi unloaded on his shots in the next set to go 5-0 up before the Austrian managed to hold his serve to take his only game of the set.

Tommaso Brugnami ended the EYOF by winning his sixth medal. In today’s speciality finals, the Italian won gold in vaulting while Emma Fioravanti and Manuel Berettera took silver in the floor exercise and on bars.

Athletics produced silver medals for Aldo Rocchi in the triple jump and in the female medley relay (100-200-300-400 metres), plus bronze in the male relay. The Italian finished with 15.72, a new personal best, just one centimetre behind the Greek Ioannis Gkartsios, who took gold with 15.73. Bronze went to France’s Jeremie Nzoungou with 15.48. The female quartet, who took gold in Banska Bystrica, finished in 2:06.45 behind Romania, first in 2:06.13. Third step of the podium went to the Czech Republic. The male relay team, meanwhile, had to wait before they were able to celebrate sealing the bronze medal: having initially finished in fourth place, they were promoted to third following the disqualification of the Portuguese team. The final haul for athletics at the 17th EYOF was one gold, five silver and two bronze medals.

Closing the medals table for Italia team was the male volleyball team with the silver medal. The Italian national team was defeated in the final by France in four sets (23-25, 15-25, 25-22, 20-25).

The flag-bearers who, getting underway at 20:30, will parade at the head of the Italian delegation in the square in Trg Svobode will be Daniele Del Signore, winner of six gold medals in swimming, and Erika Giorgia Anoeta Saraceni, a jumper who claimed gold in the triple jump with the best Italian U18 performance of 13.42 yesterday. The ceremony will be broadcast live on ItaliaTeam TV.