Italy poised for wheelchair basketball gold

Italy continued their seemingly unstoppable march to wheelchair basketball gold with another comprehensive victory at the European Para Youth Games in Istanbul

After sweeping aside the Netherlands and France on day one at the Cebeci Sports Complex, they made it three wins from three.

This time it was Portugal on the receiving end as Alessandro Sbuelz took his tournament points tally to 52 by playing another starring role in Italy's 83-41 success.

Luigo Topo was also on unstoppable form, amassing 27 points, while Federico Balsamo hit double figures to help Italy tighten its grip on the round-robin tournament.

Italy have two games left, both on Sunday (July 27), including the competition finale against Spain, with Portugal, the Netherlands and Ireland also retaining medal hopes.

Para table tennis saw its first gold medallists crowned in men's and women's singles on a busy day at Cebeci.

In the Under-23 men's singles, winners included Norway's Kritzander Magnussen (Class 7), Hungarian Milam Kreisz (Class 11), German Mio Wagner (Class 10) and Italy's Ludovico Bini (Class 8), while the women's Under-23s event included gold medals for Czechia's Tereza Cakorova Class 9-10) and Turkiye's Merve Ozsu (Class 1-5).

In the pool, Czechia’s David Kratochvil added the EPYG boys 400m freestyle gold to the gold he won at last year’s Paralympic Games. He also won the 100m free title and 100m breaststroke titles in Istanbul.

Croatia’s Emma Mecic completed a 100/400m free double in the girls, while Turkey’s Esra Yuce also now has two golds from her home Games after winning the 50m backstroke.

Ukraine’s Artem Oliinyk took his personal gold medal tally to three with victory in the 50m backstroke on Saturday.

The Para judo competition concluded with France taking gold medals in two of the final three classes. Youn Balcou triumphed in the junior men's -70kg category, while Aurele Guenerie won the junior men's -81kg, with Germany's Judith Keil taking the junior women's -60kg.

Great Britain, meanwhile, completed a successful judo campaign at EPYG with Murray McConnell winning the team's third bronze medal a day after Jake Pasquill secured gold.

The record-breaking Istanbul 2025 European Para Youth Games officially open on 24 July and run until 27 July. They will feature a record 640 athletes with 1,200 competitors, coaches and team staff from 33 countries, also the biggest ever number, competing in Para archery, Para athletics, wheelchair basketball, boccia, goalball, Para judo, Para swimming, Para table tennis and Para taekwondo.

Participants will also get to experience the Discovery Programme where they will have the chance to take part in education and experiences in a broad range of topics, including activities designed to immerse the people of Istanbul in EPYG and to get to know Para sport.