Poland’s girls and Austria’s boys stormed to victory in their respective EuroHockey U16 5s Championship events in Zagreb, continuing their countries’ excellent run in this format of the game.

Girls round-up

Poland’s Under-16 girls made it six wins from six this week with a stunning 5-4 win over Ukraine to win the EuroHockey 5s Championship in Zagreb.

The final victory owed much to a brilliant first half performance in which they built a 4-1 lead at one stage and, despite a big Ukraine fightback, they held on to take the trophy.

Lucia Horn struck twice in that opening phase to add to goals from Kim Górski and Oliwia Tujdowska. Ukraine, though, stayed in touch with Sofiia Basanets – the eventual top scorer and player of the tournament – and Alla Trypilska’s goal on the stroke of half-time cutting the gap to 4-2.

Basanets’ second then made it really tight until Dominika Bucher got what proved to be the winning goal in the 28^th minute for the Poles. Anna Shybchenko did reply instantly but they could not summon an equaliser and so Poland were the victors.

It swapped the result from the 2022 final and meant Poland have now won a medal in each of the four editions of the U16 5s format for girls.

Switzerland won the bronze medal following an extremely tight battle with Austria on the final morning in Zagreb.

Louisa Pelz put the Austrians 1-0 up in the fourth minute and it remained that way all the way up until the final minute when Bigna Conz summoned an equaliser.

It made it 1-1, sending the game to a shoot-out. In that series, Swiss goalkeeper Elinor Zaucker denied each Austrian attempt while Maya Flury and Conz both scored for a memorable 2-0 win.

Final ranking

1. Poland
2. Austria
3. Switzerland
4. Austria
5. Türkiye
6. Croatia
7. Wales
8. Georgia

View the girls’ final results here

Girls Results:

Time	Teams	Title	Scoreline
10:45	AUT – SUI	Bronze game	1 – 1 (1 – 0) (0 – 2 SO)
13:15	UKR – POL	Final	4 – 5 (2 – 4)

Boys round-up

Benedikt Meisel’s 25^th minute goal sparked the Austrian celebrations as their boys won the EuroHockey U16 5s Championship in Zagreb, retaining the title they won in Basel in 2022.

It saw them edge out Switzerland 3-2 in the final, completing a sixth win of the competition for the Austrians in what was a nail-biting deciding match, winning a medal for the fourth successive edition of this format.

For the Swiss, their results continue to improve having finished fourth in 2017 and 2019 and then third in 2022.

Maximillian Weisswasser got the only goal of the first half for the Austrians before Switzerland drew level early in the second half from Dylan Wendelspiess.

Leopold Breitmeyer nudged Austria back in front only for Cedrix Eichenberger – named the player of the tournament – to make it 2-2.

The young red capricorns, however, went ahead for the third and final time via Meisel and managed to hold despite a couple of cards in the closing minutes.

Poland won a 7-6 thriller in the boys bronze medal match, meaning their four competing teams across the various 5s tournaments all won a medal.

They produced a late flourish to defeat Ukraine 7-6 having trailed going into the closing five minutes.

It was level three times in the first half before Poland eked out a 4-3 advantage at the break; they extended that to 5-3 in the 17^th minute.

Ukraine replied with a run of three goals of their own, Bohdan Popovchenko completing his hat trick in the process to go 6-5 up.

But Poland had one last push in which Marcel Jankowiak and Filip Bogalski – with his third of the game – swung the result back in their favour.

Boys results:

Time	Teams	Title	Scoreline
09:30	POL – UKR	Bronze game	7 – 6 (4 – 3)
12:00	AUT – SUI	Final	3 – 2 (1 – 0)

Final standings

1. Austria
2. Switzerland
3. Poland
4. Ukraine
5. Türkiye
6. Croatia
7. Wales
8. Slovakia

View the boys’ final results here