17 Aug 2023 at 14:07 | Published by: PatPenguin | Views: 50022 | News search

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Vergiate, Italy - The World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) together with the Federazione Italiana Minigolf (FIMg) and Golf su Pista Vergiate (GSP Vergiate) held the 2023 Youth European Championships (YEC) in Vergiate, Italy. The 2023 edition was held on concrete on August 8th through 12th with 22 female and 39 male youth competing across a variety of categories including, teams and individual strokeplay, mixed pairs strokeplay and individual matchplay.

In the opening days of the tournament, it was the youth from Germany who showed dominance across the board. In the female youth team category, the German women (Annika Sophia Hensel, Lena Grabrucker, Elana Weber and Felicitas Haubrock) showed great consistency with a 33.0 average across the 7 rounds, earning them the top spot by 22 strokes. From there it was a battle for the final two spots on the podium with the next three teams only separated by three strokes. It was the team from the Czech Republic that would take the silver position and thanks to the best team round in round 7, Austria would secure bronze by one stroke over Sweden.


Female Youth Teams Podium

In the male youth team category, the competition wasn’t as close and Germany (Jonas Rabe, Luca Hoock, Luis Buchwieser, Levi Tritsch, Lauro Klöckener and Tobias Schwarz) still dominated the top spot, with a 29.9 average across the 7 rounds, leading them to a win by 41 strokes. The home Italy team would take second place in this division and in a switch from the female youth, Sweden would beat out Austria for the bronze by an 11 stroke margin.


Male Youth Teams Podium

In the individual stroke play championships, Germany youth would see a lot of podium spots but it was the home Italian Marco Broggi who took the gold in the male youth category. His impressive 26 (a tournament low), 29, 28 finish in the last three of eleven rounds earned him an 8 stroke margin of victory and the only player to finish with a sub-29 average. It was a German battle for the other two podium spots with Lauro Klöckener, squeaking out the silver by 2 strokes over Luis Buchwieser, who in turn secured bronze by 3 strokes over Luca Hoock.


Male Youth Stroke Play Podium

It was the female youth category where Germany would take gold and silver with Elena Weber, the only female with three rounds below 30, who took the top spot with a 31.6 averager and an 8 stroke margin of victory. Annika Sophia Hensel would take second and the bronze saw Martina Maderová from the Czech Republic on the podium.


Female Youth Stroke Play Podium

With only four rounds in play, the Mixed Pairs competition was the tightest of the strokeplay finishes with each spot separated by only one stroke from the one below. A couple Germans would grab another gold medal in this competition as the team of Tobias Schwarz and Annika Sophia Hensel would come in at 121 and edge the Swiss team of Léa Magnin and Maël Magnin for the win. They in turn held off the Swedish team of Rebecka Johansson and Elias Elfving, who grabbed the last spot ahead of three teams who were just one stroke behind.


Mixed Pairs Podium

The tournament would wrap up with the exciting matchplay rounds as 16 females and 32 males battled it out for the top spots. On the female youth side, it was no surprise to see Elena Weber and Lena Grabrucker get to the finals with relative ease and then have the last match be a nailbiter, tied after 18. Weber would eventually get the win, with Lena having the silver. The bronze medal match was equally a tight, all square after 18 and Léa Magnin picked up her second medal outlasting Janette Praher from Austria.


Female Match Play Podium

The trend of tight finals carried over to the male youth side as well, where it came down to the German Lauro Klöckener who was against Tim De Boer from the Netherlands, who survived a couple close matches on the way to the final. Unfortunately he didn’t have enough to overcome the German run at the end and Klöckener grabbed the gold. It was an all German battle for the bronze as well with Luca Hoock taking out Sky Joèl Kaspar.


Male Match Play Podium

You can find plenty of pictures from all days of competition over on the WMF Youth Facebook Page (link below). The full results can also be found at the link below.

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