There was continued success for Team GB's mixed curling quartet as the Sarajevo 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival reached the halfway point of the Games.
The team made it five wins from five with a 7-2 victory against Hungary – a match in which their Hungarian counterparts conceded after the sixth end.
Having beaten Austria and Denmark the previous day, the team made a rapid start, storming to a 5-1 lead after two ends. And even though a power outage caused a short stoppage in play, this did nothing to put them off their stride.
A win versus Russia tomorrow will secure their passage through to the final four and skip Hamish Gallacher was hopeful that the week would end on a positive note.
“It’s all been running pretty smoothly so far,” said Gallacher. “We’ve performed very solidly in the round robin so far and if we can keep that up, it’s going to be a very good week.
“Tomorrow’s game is important. We’ve been training for this for years and we need to make sure all the practice and everything that goes into it pays off for this game. It’s an important game and hopefully we’ll ride it out to victory.”
Lead Inca Maguire said: “The competition has gone really well and I’m so happy that we’re undefeated so far. We’ve put in strong performances and it’s amazing to be a part of the team.
“The second end was really important because we it allowed us to go ahead in the game, gain more confidence and give us a really good boost heading into tomorrow’s game.”
In the alpine skiing, our women’s skiers faced the giant slalom at the Jahorina mountain district, with all four completing both runs to place in the top-35.
After an impressive top-ten finish in the slalom, 17-year-old Sarah Woodward secured 15th place despite being ranked fourth after the first run.
Woodward crossed the line in a time of 2:20.29, just 3.91 seconds off the eventual winner and she was content with her performance.
“I was really pleased with my first run - I was ranked in fourth position after run one and was only 0.22 off second place,” said Woodward
“I didn’t have much to lose for the second run, so I sent it hard but unfortunately it didn’t pay off and ended up finishing 15th.
“It was quite a low blow to take, considering you’re so close to achieving something. I’m not entirely sure where it went wrong – maybe it was me putting too much pressure on myself.
“The experience has been a massive eye-opener for me. I’ve competed in ski-racing internationals as a kid, but not within a multi-sport experience like this, she added.
“It’s really inspiring to see a group of young athletes aspiring for and wanting to do so well within their sport.” The rest of the Team GB women's alpines skiing squad also concluded their giant slalom event today, with Victoria Palla, Olivia Foster and Daisi Daniels finishing 21st, 30th and 34th respectively.
Meanwhile, figure skating made its debut at EYOF 2019 with the skaters taking to the ice at the Mirza Delibašić Hall in Skenderija.
Sixteen-year-old Joseph Zakipour achieved a personal best by placing 14th in the men’s short programme while fellow Brit, Genevieve Somerville, struggled to make her mark on her opening day and finished 21st. Both skaters will conclude their Sarajevo 2019 with tomorrow’s free programme.
Elsewhere, reigning British biathlon champion, Shawna Pendry had her second outing in the 7.5km individual.
Pendry shot clean in the second half of the individual race and, despite tiring towards the end, she eventually took 54th place overall on her final day at the Games.