While still swimming, Raphaël Vanhecke failed to reach the final of the 200 m medley. He recorded the ninth chrono in the semifinals: 2:09.68. Vanhecke was 11th in the heats in 2:10.39. Leo Verschooten took 39th place in the 100m freestyle (54.50).
In athletics, Reda Aouargh finished seventh in the 1500 meters final with a time of 4:06.08. The Italian Latena Cervone triumphed in 4:02.30.
Judoka Victoria Sibille (-48 kg) beat Slovakian Martina Sekova in the first round with an ippon, but was knocked out in the quarterfinals by Azerbaijani Konul Aliyeva, also with an ippon. The 17-year-old Belgian was eliminated in the rematch by the German Helen Habib, with ippon. Sibille eventually finished seventh.
In badminton, Arnaud Huberty won his third and fourth match. The Kosovar Baton Haxhui was defeated 21-2 and 21-3 and the Moldovan Nicolae Enachi was also beaten 21-13 and 26-24. Among the girls, Amber Boonen lost for the second time in group 7, this time against the Swiss Leila Zarou (21-6, 21-16). The Belgian won her third match against the Serbian Masa Aleksic 21-7 and 21-8. She then also defeated Latvian Elza Zitane 21-5 and 21-7.
Tennis star Anastia Huijsegoms (14) was defeated in the first round of the singles by the Latvian Beatrise Zeltina 6-3 and 6-0.
Three Belgian cyclists appeared at the start of the 8.4 kilometer time trial for the women. Luca Vierstraete was 11th (out of 78) 31 seconds behind British Cat Ferguson, who won in 12:11. Auke De Buysser finished 35th at 59 seconds and was three hundredths faster than Ella Heremans, who finished 36th. Jasper Schoofs achieved the best Belgian result in the men’s time trial over the same distance. He finished 17th out of 93 participants and was 29 seconds slower than Polish winner Patryk Goszczurny, who won in 10:47. Aless De Bock finished in 27th place at 38 seconds and Cédric Keppens in 34th place at 43 seconds.
Giel Vandeberg finished 69th in the all-round qualifications in artistic gymnastics with 61,350 points. Cyril Bauduin became 72nd (58.800), Kyano Schepers 73rd (58.750).
The female basketball players recorded their second win. After the 66-50 win against Finland, Germany went 65-52 (half time 27-23) for the axe. Marine Cop (11 pts, 10 rebs) and Zhen Verbrugt (14 pts, 6 rebs, 4 ast) were the stars in Belgium.
The Belgian volleyball men, who managed to beat Poland 3-2 on Monday, lost 3-1 to the Czech Republic on Tuesday (25-13, 26-28, 25-20 and 25-22).
The EYOF, which takes place in Slovakia until Saturday, is a multi-sport competition aimed at European athletes between 12 and 18 years old. At the previous edition of the youth festival, in Baku in Azerbaijan in 2019, the Belgians won seven medals.
