16.02.2017
Another exciting day at Erzurum saw both Turkish curling teams progress to tomorrow’s finals day. However, they will both be looking to avenge round robin defeats against their semi-final opponents, the girls against Poland and the boys against medal table-leaders Russia.
Italy added two medals to their tally today, including a second gold of the festival for Alex Vinatzer in the alpine skiing Boys’ Slalom. Croatia’s Leon Nikic took silver and France’s Augustin Bianchini won bronze.
Russia dominated the podiums in the cross country skiing Sprint Free events at the Kandili venue. In the Girls’ Sprint Free Elena Kucheva improved on her silver medal in the 7.5 km Individual Free, winning another Russian gold. Zuzana Holikova (Czech Republic) and Jasmin Kahara (Finland) won silver and bronze respectively. The Boys’ event was an incredibly close affair, with gold medallist Andrei Nekrasov from Russia beating his second and third place rivals by just over a second. Miska Poikkimaki from Finland took silver, and Russia’s Aleksandr Terentev won bronze.
The Girls’ 500m short track speed skating was a one sided affair, with Russia’s Vera Rasskazova beating her rivals by over ten seconds. Georgie Dalrymple (Netherlands) and Melissa Tunno (Italy) won silver and bronze respectively. In the Boys’ event, Lithuania won their first medal of the festival – and it was a gold one. Salvijus Ramanauskas beat Luxembourg’s only medallist of the festival, Peter Murphy, who added a silver medal to his gold from yesterday, and France’s Diane Sellier.
France dominated the mixed team snowboard cross final, winning both the gold and silver medals. Russia added their eighth bronze and twenty-eighth medal to their tally in what has been a successful week for their teams.