Italy Wrangles Up Triple Gold On Night 4 Of EYOF

2022 EUROPEAN YOUTH OLYMPIC FESTIVAL

Croatia was the first nation to grab gold on night four of the 2022 European Youth Olympic Festival, however, Italy was the big winner with a trio of top finishes.

Lucijana Luksic took the women’s 200m free event by over one and a half seconds, collecting gold in a time of 2:01.95. That comfortably beat out runner-up Sylvia Statkevicius of Lithuania who snagged silver in 2:03.65 while Germany’s Julia Ackermann posted 2:03.69 for bronze.

For Luksic, her performance tonight checks in as a huge new personal best, easily overtaking her previous PB of 2:03.76 clocked en route to finishing in 12th place at this year’s European Junior Championships.

The men’s 200m backstroke saw Hungarian teenager Alex Kovats get it done in a time of 2:02.32 to take his first individual gold here in Slovakia. Kovats has already collected silver in the 200m IM earlier in this competition so this race represents his first visit to the top of the podium.

Behind Kovats was Italy’s Daniele Del Signore who touched in 2:03.63, adding silver here to his 100m back runner-up result from day 2. Rounding out the men’s 2back podium was Denys Mialkovskyi who touched in 2:04.18.

Alice Dimaggio kept the momentum going for the Italians, winning the 100m fly race in a time of 1:00.84. In the process, she shaved .35 off of her previous career-quickest mark of 1:01.19 produced this past April.

Then in the men’s 50m free the spotlight also shone on an Italian in the form of Davide Passafaro. Passafaro clinched the gold in a time of 23.25, with a pair of racers immediately behind him.

Settling for silver was Frenchman Falemana Lopez in 23.32 while Ukraine’s Mykyta Kudinov also landed on the podium, only .01 behind Lopez in 23.33.

In the final event of the night, Germany wound up on top in the mixed medley relay, touching in a collective effort of 4:00.45. It was an extremely tight race with Romania next in 4:00.72 while Great Britain bagged bronze in 4:00.88.

Splits for the constituents of each of these top 3 teams were as follows:

 

 

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About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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