17.02.2017
Turkey secured two medals on the final day of the EYOF, but missed out on the gold they had hoped for in the Girls’ curling final.
The team went into the finals day hoping to overturn a 7-6 round robin loss to Poland in the semi-finals. In a tense encounter, Turkey managed to reverse the previous score line and progress to the final. Unfortunately, they faced a Russia side desperate to avenge their round robin defeat to Turkey and lost 7-2, but can hold their heads up high as Turkey’s equal best performers in the festival. Poland defeated Norway to win the bronze medal.
In the Boys’ event Turkey missed out on a bronze medal after losing to Slovenia. They were unlucky to lose 3-2 to eventual winners Russia in the semi-final earlier in the day. Russia defeated the Netherlands 5-3 to pick up the gold medal.
Turkey’s Hazar Karagol was desperately unlucky to miss out on gold in the short track speed skating Boys’ 1000m. His time of 1:35.854 was only 0.211 seconds slower than eventual gold medallist Diane Sellier, from France. Russia’s Aleksei Simakin picked up the bronze medal. In the Girls’ equivalent event Poland picked up the gold (Kamila Stormowska) and bronze (Patrycja Markiewicz), whilst Russia’s Vera Rasskazova won the silver medal. In the Mixed 3000m Russia won gold, Poland silver and the Netherlands bronze.
The final two ski jumping events, the Normal Hill Team Competition and the Mixed Team Competition, produced identical results, with Slovenia winning gold, France silver and Russia bronze.
The one-sided ice hockey competition had a predictable result, with the dominant Russian side defeating Belarus 7-1 in the final. Slovakia picked up their only medal of the festival in the bronze medal match.
In the alpine skiing Parallel Nations Team event Russia beat Slovenia in the big final to win gold, whilst France beat Netherlands in the small final to win bronze.
Russia won gold in both the biathlon and cross-country skiing mixed relay events. France won silver in the Biathlon and bronze in the cross-country skiing events, whilst Finland produced the opposite result.
It has been a week of exciting and high-level competition in Erzurum, with athletes providing constant entertainment for spectators all week.