The pinnacle of youth flag football has finished in Grosseto with Italy and Slovenia securing gold. A stupendous day of sport in Grosseto (Italy) was the culmination of three days of activity where the U15 and U17 players from six European nations have battled it out to take home the European titles in their respective categories. Under splendid sunny skies with the mercury rising, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Ukraine and Czechia were out early this morning to contest the playoffs with fantastic displays of no-holds-barred football and enthusiastic support from cheering fans. The first championship title of the day was seized by Italy’s female U17 team following yet another fiercely fought game against their Austrian opponents. Throughout the tournament the Italians have played effectively and aggressively both in attack and defence, enabling them to put the championship firmly in their sights and win every game against their worthy adversary, Austria. The Italian girls may have had the upper hand in the U17 category, but it was Slovenia who had the edge in the U15 championship, defeating the Italians by 32-20 in the final. Displaying extraordinary tenacity and resilience, Team Slovenia’s team have dominated the tournament and only lost one of their games, which was against the Italians yesterday afternoon. They came to Grosseto with a skeleton roster only to be further penalised by two players being injured during the tournament, but they never gave an inch to earn their place on the top step on the podium at this debut tournament for the girls’ flag football movement in Europe. Italy and Czechia went head-to-head twice today in the male championship, with Italy completing its flag football masterpiece by securing both remaining titles! The U15 team is European Champion five years on after going down to the wire to beat the Czechs 27-20 just when it seem the game would go into overtime. All celebrations are well earned as the hosts played a perfect tournament without losing a game. The Italian U17 team produced the same phenomenal result when they overcame a strong Czechia team and triumphed 27-12 in the final. Congratulations to Italy, which has wrapped up Europe at home with three golds and a silver, and to the Italian Federation for all its incredible hard work with the junior flag football categories. A colossal thanks also goes to all the participating teams who accepted their ‘mission’ for these championships so flawlessly: to see our young players laughing and playing again in an atmosphere of 100% fair play and festival, just as IFAF and FIDAF had hoped. All scores can be found here: http://italia.fidaf.org/2021-european-youth-flag-football-championships/