After a 20-year break, young competitors from all corners of Europe once again gathered in Slovenia to compete for the titles of European Youth Champions. This time, the event was centered in Nova Gorica, a city that, together with Gorizia, Italy, holds the title of European Capital of Culture 2025.
After the sprint, Spain led the medal standings
The event kicked off with a sprint right in the center of Nova Gorica; the race was dramatic in all four categories, with the winners—who posted the fastest times—being W16 Dora Delic (CRO), M16 Daniel Sanz (ESP), M18 Ekain Fernandez (ESP) Garcia, and W18 Lotta Marit Luethi (SUI).
“Given the intense heat that prevailed throughout the race, it was a major challenge for the organizers to ensure conditions that would prevent the athletes from becoming dehydrated or suffering health issues. And they did an excellent job—plenty of water at both the start and finish lines, ample shade, misting systems, warm-up and cool-down areas in shaded spaces, and, of course, an ambulance on site,” said Dusan Vystavel, the IOF Council representative at this event.
Photos: Fotofabrik / EYOC 2026
A historic gold medal for Slovenia
The best thing that can happen to any host country is to win a medal—ideally a gold one. And that’s exactly what Brina Kolner achieved in the W18 category, capitalizing on her experience navigating challenging karst terrain and, above all, her excellent physical conditioning. Joining her in winning gold were Matej Bulicka (CZE) in the M18 category, Sara Delic (CRO) in the W16 category, and Daniel Sanz (ESP), who claimed his second gold.
“The gold medal is fantastic for our federation; Brina is a real pattern, especially for young people. And when they see that she has succeeded in this way, it’s a huge motivation for all of them for the future,” said one of the organizers.
And another historic moment the following day—Croatia’s relay victory
Croatia had already won individual medals, but shared team joy is the best after all! Sisters Sara and Dora Delic were joined by Helena Posedi on the first leg, and it resulted in a victory. In other categories, gold medals went to Finland’s M18 team (Hietala – Savinainen – Viippola), the Czechia’s W18 team (Novotná – Tomasková – Kamenicka), and the Czechia’s M16 team (Minarik – Ritter – Dittrich).
“It’s incredible to win, and by such a wide margin—congratulations and thank you to all three relay team members, as well as the entire team,” added Matija Razum, the Croatian coach.
I’m very glad that hosting such a major event has brought us together as Slovenian orienteers—it’s the first time in a really long time that representatives from all the clubs have been involved in the organization. In Slovenia, we have just over 300 registered members, and about 90 of them are organizers—which means that roughly one-third of our federation’s members were involved in the organization,” said Blaz Kolner, president of the SOF and one of the main organizers.
“An excellent event, and given the diversity of the results—medals are going to 12 countries, and representatives from another 9 countries made it into the top 6—these are fantastic numbers and big hope for the IOF’s future,” commented Dusan Vystavel.