On Monday morning, at the Plus Bowling Center in the Austrian capital Vienna, European Youth Championships have begun.
A total of 30 European bowling federations and 168 youth athletes participate in the event.
The first day of EYC 2023 belonged to the Boys Doubles event, where four teams of two advanced to the semi-finals after the first six qualification games.
Kevin Melin and Emil Svensson of Sweden set the new record for Boys Doubles, scoring 2800 six-game pinfall (233.33 avg.) and sat atop of Boy's Doubles qualification.
Markus Lahti & Luukas Väänänen of Finland (2705 pinfall), Robing Moberg & Carl Eklund (2693 pinfall) of Sweden, and Simon Jaros & David Barak (2678 pinfall) of Slovakia joined them in a race for gold medals.
Thanks to a great game from Kevin Melin, the record-breaking Swedish duo won against Slovaks with a result of 451-391, while another Swedish duet of Robin Noberg and Carl Eklund defeated Finns Markus Lahti and Luukas Väänänen in a high-scoring bowling duel with a result of 459-432 to advance to the Boy's Doubles finals.
In the final game, Emil Svensson & Kevin Melin overcame their compatriots seizing the title with a 471-402 victory and proved to be the best this year in the Boy's Doubles event.
Gold medals - Emil Svensson & Kevin Melin (Sweden)
Silver medals - Robin Noberg & Carl Eklund (Sweden)
Bronze medals - Simon Jaros & David Barak (Slovakia) | Markus Lahti & Luukas Väänänen (Finland)
Markus Lahti of Finland was the first athlete to perform a perfect game. He made it during his first game of the qualification round.
Twenty-four best performers will advance to the next round of the All-Event category after 18 qualification games. Here are the top 8 performers after the first six games in the Boys All-Event.
Full standings can be found here.
All championship activities will be held from the 2nd of April to the 9th of April 2023.
