Croatia’s boys and girls both made flying starts at the EuroHockey 5s U16 Championships in Alanya as their back-to-back wins on day one have set themselves up well in the group stages.
Hosts Türkiye and Austria have done likewise in the girls competition, marking each out as contenders for the honours this week in the top division.
Here’s the day one round-up:
EuroHockey 5s U16 Championship Boys 2026 (Alanya, Türkiye)
Croatia made the big moves in Pool B with two wins from two, opening with a 5-3 win over Switzerland and then recording a handsome success over Denmark in game two.
The Swiss bounced back from that early defeat to win 4-2 against Poland to end the day in second spot while the Danes and Poland are on one point each after their 3-3 draw.
Pool A got under way in lively fashion with Austria and Türkiye sharing a 3-3 tie while Ukraine came back from 2-0 down to beat Bulgaria 3-2. All three goals came in the last eight minutes with Illia Samysh nicking the victory in the closing seconds.
And the Turks followed up with a healthy 8-0 win over Bulgaria to sit in top spot, just ahead of Austria on goal difference. The latter won well against Ukraine, 5-1.
Thursday sees the group stages completed in the morning before the quarter-finals play out in the afternoon.
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EuroHockey 5s U16 Championship Girls 2026 (Alanya, Türkiye)
Hosts Türkiye began their tournament in brilliant style with a 6-4 win over Poland with Şehriban Sezer and Tuanna Sel both scoring twice to put them in the clear.
They made it two wins from two when they saw off Denmark 6-1.
Austria, meanwhile, showed their credentials with a 12-0 success against Denmark and completed the day with a narrow 5-3 win over Poland to join Türkiye at the top of the group.
Croatia’s girls put in two stellar performances to head up Pool B as they won a 3-2 thriller against Ukraine in the tournament’s opening game thanks to a Lana Ciganić hat trick. They followed up with a 9-1 win over Georgia.
Ukraine responded to that loss with a 6-2 win over Switzerland who had, in turn, beaten Georgia 6-1 in the early game.
It means Croatia will finish top of the group if they get a draw or better against Switzerland in the last of the group games while top of Pool A will be down to the clash between Austria and Türkiye.
Each side will then advance to the afternoon’s quarter-finals where they will hope to land a spot in the semis.
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EuroHockey 5s U16 Championship II Boys 2026 (Kutaisi, Georgia)
Comprehensive wins for Belarus and Russia saw them take the early advantage in boys Championship II; the former defeated Luxembourg 12-0 while the latter were 8-0 victors over hosts Georgia.
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EuroHockey 5s U16 Championship II Girls 2026 (Kutaisi, Georgia)
Russia and Belarus proved too strong for their opponents on day one of Championship II with the former defeating newcomers Armenia 25-0 while the latter beat Slovakia 9-0.
Tomorrow sees two rounds of matches with Bulgaria facing Russia and Armenia taking on Belarus in the morning. The afternoon session pits Belarus against the Russians and Slovakia up against Bulgaria.
