Day four of the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) saw the girls compete in the road race competition for the first time in the festival’s history. Riding for Team GB was Abby-Mae Parkinson (Liversedge), Grace Garner (Leicester) and Charlotte Broughton (Leicester). The flat course lent itself to a slow race and in a sprint finish for the line, Broughton took silver, with Garner claiming the bronze (picture above).
Speaking after the race Garner said: “We thought it would be a sprint finish and it was. I think we could tell that the other riders had sprinters which was why it was a slow race.
“The race spread out with 2km to go and Abby-Mae sat on the front and I managed to come through and get third. I am really pleased with my bronze medal and Charlotte got silver which is good too.
“Abby-Mae is such a good teammate. We couldn’t have done it without her today.”
Broughton also praised teammate Parkinson, “Abby-Mae is such a good person to work with in the road race. She worked so hard and stayed up at the front for a lot of the race,” said Broughton.
Joe Fry (Potters Bar), Joe Holt (Llanelli) and Ellis Kirkbride (Carlisle) also took to the roads of Het Lint for the boys’ road race. It was a tough race for the trio who gave everything they had, but with lots of attacks and two crashes the boys were unable to match the girls’ team with Holt finishing highest in eighth place.
“I was happy with the way I rode and the way that the team rode,” said Holt speaking after the race.
“I managed to keep calm throughout the race, I am normally quite an aggressive rider but I kept my cool in this race which is pleasing.
“It was a shame that I could not pull it off, I was a bit too far back on the last bend, we were sprinting for fourth or fifth in the end but I should have been a bit higher up.
“But I'm really happy with the week, I would have liked to have got in the top 20 in the time trial but I ended up 36th.
“We don’t do that many time trials back home so I know that I need to work on that.”
At the Galgenwaard Sports Centre GB’s gymnasts continued to re-write the history books at the 2013 EYOF by winning a further three medals.
After their stunning team gold medal on Tuesday Brinn Bevan (Benfleet) and Nile Wilson (Leeds) competed in the men’s artistic gymnastics (MAG) all-around final. Sixteen year-old Bevan produced a personal best score going clean on all six pieces to secure the gold medal ahead of teammate Wilson who won the silver.
“It went really well today, I really didn’t expect to win,” said Bevan.
“I had a really good competition on Tuesday and I really didn’t think I could better that performance. It is amazing to win gold for my country again and score a personal best.
“There were a lot of very good competitors in the all-around final. My teammate Nile is really strong along with the Russians.
“I have made five out of the six finals tomorrow so hopefully I will bring home a few more medals.”
Wilson who won the silver all-around medal at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF) earlier this year was hoping for an upgrade to gold but unfortunately he made a few mistakes which ultimately cost him his shot at gold.
“Today didn’t go as planned, I made a few mistakes on a couple of the apparatus. I fell off the pommel and my landing wasn’t great on the vault,” said Wilson.
“I came to win the gold and unfortunately it wasn’t too be. Brinn got a personal best score and he did absolutely amazing today and thoroughly deserved to win gold. He absolutely destroyed it!
“Today was a learning experience for me. In my next big competition I can use this experience and make sure I don’t make the same mistakes.”
In the women’s artistic gymnastics (WAG) all-around final Tyesha Mattis (Tottenham) and Ellie Downie (Nottingham) performed superbly across all of the disciplines with Mattis securing her second medal of EYOF winning bronze, and Downie scored a personal best to place fourth.
A beaming Mattis with a silver medal hung around her neck said: “It feels good because I have really worked hard. I have been mostly been working on the bar due to an injury I have, so to perform the way I did across all of the pieces was great.
“Winning the silver medal yesterday gave me the confidence that I am capable of winning medals and it gave me a boost going into the final today.
“First I made history performing the ‘double double’ and now to get my name in the books as the first Team GB female gymnast to win an all-around medal at an EYOF is just amazing.”
In the pool Duncan Scott (Alloa), Suleman Butt (Aberdeen), Darcy Deakin (Sheffield) and Hannah Featherstone (Billingham) won Team GB’s only medal of the session securing silver in the 4x100m medley mixed relay.
“Three races and three medals plus a personal best on the lead-off leg, it does not get much better than that for me so I cannot complain,” said Scott.
“I'm so pleased to have another medal and to do it with the team is extra special.
“I cannot swim much better than this and with the 200m IM tomorrow I hope I can keep it going and get another one.”
In her 400m freestyle final Georgia Coates (Leeds) finished 6th.
Triple EYOF medallist Abbie Wood (Buxton) was unable to add to her medal tally placing 10th in the 100m breaststroke. Martyn Walton (Stevenage) who recorded a 12th place in the 100m backstroke, Luke Gunning (Orpington) and Julian Lin (Balham) both placed ninth in their respective events. Whilst Suleman Butt (Aberdeen) was disqualified in his 100m freestyle final.
Laura Stephens (Wix) qualified third fastest for the 100m butterfly final tomorrow night.
At the Jaarbeurs Utrecht judokas -63kg Lubjana Piovesana (Birmingham) and -70kg Sarah Hill (Andover) both finished fifth after reaching the bronze medal contest.
Hill fought Aleksandra Samardzic of Bosnia-Herzegovina for the bronze medal, but lost by ippon. Piovesana lost out on bronze to two-time European Cadet Cup winner Croatian Buga Kovac by a single shido.
“I would have loved a medal but top-five is great at a big tournament like this, it’s one of my best and it means that I have achieved qualification for the worlds in Miami,” said Piovesana.
“I am improving all the time and I will hopefully keep doing that out in America.”
Speaking after her bronze medal match Hill said: “Sometimes you just have to accept that you lost to the better player on the day and that is exactly what happened in my bronze medal match.”
“I am disappointed not to have got the bronze but it’s just one of those things. To come fifth here in the biggest event of my career is great.
Unfortunately, the boys, exited in the early rounds after each of them faced tough competition.
Jamal Petgrave -81kg (Mitcham) faced the European number four Domonik Druzeta who scored ippon. -73kg Enrico Atkinson (Tonbridge) also exited early after losing by wazari to Spaniard Mendiola Izquieta.
Team GB’s tennis duo of Thomas Wright (Beckenham) and Harry Simpson (Hull) took on the pair from Estonia in their quarter-final match the doubles competition. Wright and Simpon took the first set 7-5 but lost the second set 6-2 and match tie break 10-4.