Sara Caputo

For the second year in a row, the Italians took the mixed pairs title at the European Youth Olympic Festival, coming in just over two tenths ahead of the German team thanks to the strong combination of two solid vaults from WAG all-around silver medalist Sara Caputo and a fantastic floor set from MAG all-around champion Tommaso Brugnami.

The mixed pairs competition is a new addition to EYOF, beginning in 2022 to replace the traditional all-around final in an effort to make things more fun and to put less pressure on the athletes, who are all at the junior level here. All-around medalists are now crowned in the first round of competition, which also serves as the team final and the qualifier for apparatus finals, as well as the qualifier for the mixed pairs competition.

From the main qualification session, a total of 16 pairs reach the preliminary round after combining the scores of the top WAG and MAG competitors for each country. Athletes in this round choose two of the three available apparatuses – vault, beam, and floor for the women, and floor, parallel bars, and high bar for the men – and the top four teams then move on to the semifinal, where they compete on the last remaining apparatus to determine the brackets for the final round. In the final, all previous scores are dropped with athletes coming in on a clean slate for their final apparatus, which they again choose from the three available, and the top-scoring team in the gold final bracket takes the title.

This year, the Germans led the prelims with all-around champion Helen Kevric shining on floor and vault while teammate Mert Öztürk put up strong routines on high bar and floor. The pair earned a 51.898, a few tenths ahead of the Italians with a 51.533, led by Caputo with a 13.733 on vault for her Yurchenko double full along with a hit beam routine, while Brugnami showed solid work on parallel bars and high bar.

Not far behind was Switzerland in third with a 51.332, thanks to Kea Walser‘s performances on vault and floor along with Carlo Riesco’s work on parallel bars and floor, while France rounded out the top four with a 50.799, with Lilou Viallat competing vault and floor and Naël Sakouhi competing parallel bars and floor to edge Ukraine, which won bronze in the mixed pairs competition in 2022, by about a tenth after Diana Lobok struggled a bit on both of her apparatuses, though teammate Ivan Rudyi looked strong on both parallel bars and floor.

Also competing in the preliminary round were Belgium with a 50.365, Spain with a 50.032, Great Britain with a 49.732, Romania with a 49.298, Czechia with a 49.298, Austria with a 47.899, Norway with a 47.565, the Netherlands with a 47.365, Türkiye with a 45.399, Poland with a 44.832, and Hungary with a 43.633.

In the semifinal duels, Germany faced off against France while Italy went up against Switzerland. Kevric put up a clean beam routine to earn a 13.2 while Öztürk nailed his parallel bars set for a 13.1, both outscoring their French counterparts by nearly a point as Viallat earned a 12.733 on beam and Sakouhi put up a 12.733 on high bar. In the second duel, Caputo and Brugnami both hit strong floor sets to score 12.933 and 13.466, coming in a combined 2.6 points ahead of the Swiss athletes, as Walser struggled on beam for an 11.2 while Riesco earned a 12.6 on high bar.

With Germany and Italy winning the semifinal rounds, these two teams were bracketed into the gold medal final, while France and Switzerland would compete in the race for bronze.

The competition was tight in the bronze round, as both Viallat and Walser chose to compete vault, with Viallat averaging a 12.749 and Walser narrowly defeating her with a 12.783. It then came down to the men, who were nearly just as close, though this time France had the upper hand with Sakouhi earning a 13.166 for his parallel bars routine while Riesco was slightly behind with a 13.033 on floor. Earning a combined 25.915, France ended up with the bronze medal just a tenth ahead of Switzerland with a 25.816.

As in the bronze round, both WAG athletes opted to compete on vault in the gold medal final, with Caputo earning a 13.283 average, a couple of tenths behind Kevric with a 13.549 average. But again, the men’s competition reversed things, as Brugnami put up an excellent 13.533 on floor, half a point ahead of Öztürk with a 13.033 on high bar to lead Italy to a 26.816, which was good enough for the gold while Germany with a 26.582 settled for the silver medal.

With the team of Arianna Grillo and Riccardo Villa winning gold in the inaugural competition in 2022, the Italians remain undefeated as mixed pairs champions. With apparatus finals coming up next, both Caputo and Brugnami have several more opportunities to medal, as Caputo has qualified into all four WAG finals while Brugnami will compete on floor, rings, and vault, all of which could result in the podium for him.

Complete results from the mixed pairs competition along with all additional coverage from EYOF can be found via our coverage guide.

Article by Lauren Hopkins