Skopje sun scorches at EYOF with action across seven sports
Team Ireland enjoyed continued success on Day Two of competition at the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in Skopje.
Following Erin Friel’s sensational bronze medal performance this morning in the Girls’ 400m, Irish athletes continued to shine across seven sports.
Despite scorching conditions reaching 40 degrees, the cycling team got their campaign underway, with Emer Heverin delivering a strong ride in the Girls’ Time Trial to finish seventh overall.
The Girls’ 3×3 Basketball team made a strong start to their group campaign with two wins from two, defeating Romania and the Netherlands.
Competing in Croatia, the Boys’ All-Around gymnastics team finished tenth overall, with Chester Enriquez and Finlay Hazelton progressing to the apparatus finals.
It was a busy day in the pool, where Julia Dziedzic placed 8th in the final of the Girls’ 200m Backstroke. In Table Tennis, Peadar Sheridan opened his campaign with a victory in his first match.
Full round up below, and all interviews can be found on SOUNDCLOUD.
The EYOF, which takes place in Skopje, North Macedonia, runs from 20 to 26 July 2025. Live coverage of the Games, including the Opening Ceremony, is available at https://eoctv.org/.
ATHLETICS
Tuesday got off to a blistering start for Team Ireland in Skopje, with a fantastic bronze medal from Donegal’s Erin Friel in the 400m. Running a PB time of 54.02, a medal was never in doubt. Speaking after the race, a buzzing Friel said,
“It feels amazing. As I said yesterday, I see Sharlene, Sophie Becker, Rhasidat, they all started where I am now. Some of them would’ve been at the EYOF, Rhasidat was here, she came away with the medal, and now look at her. So to be, especially now, to be coming away with the medal, that just gives me so much hope for the future, because I know this is what I want to do even in years to come. This is where I want to be.”
Ellis McHugh eased into the final of the Girls’ 400m Hurdles heat, winning with a time of 59.99, with the fourth fastest qualifying time. Speaking after her race, the Waterford hurdler reflected on the race, as she now looks forward to the final,
“My plan was to kind of not focus on anybody and just on my own race. I was in a middle lane, so I just said, just run my own race, so I tried to come in hard and attack them. I think I did that well, coming down the end straight.”
Lucie Cawley narrowly missed out on qualification for the Girls’ 2000m steeple chase. Finishing sixth in her heat, her time of 7:02.97 was one place outside of qualifying for the final.
Badminton
It was a busy day with mixed results for Luke Marks in the boys’ singles, with three matches on the schedule. A win and two defeats meant he missed out on progression to the next rounds; however, strong performances across the past two days showcased the potential of the Tipperary player.
In his morning match, Marks lost 0–2 to Bulgaria’s Georgi Ruptsov (13–21, 15–21), before bouncing back with an exciting 2–0 win over Croatia’s Marko Surina (23–21, 21–18). However, a narrow defeat to Poland’s Jakub Dulemba in his final match brought his singles campaign to an end.
Speaking earlier today, Marks reflected confidently on his development throughout the event,
“I have learnt that I’m actually as good as these guys. It’s nice to see all, like, different styles from different players and I haven’t seen this many different styles in one tournament so that’s cool to see and it’s a really high level as well.”
Hannah Shochan’s singles campaign also came to a close today, following two narrow defeats. First, she was beaten 0–2 by Norway’s Abiramy Kokilan (12–21, 17–21). With everything on the line in her final group match against Romania’s Daria Gherasim, the young Dubliner pushed the match to three sets but ultimately had to settle for a 1–2 defeat (21–17, 15–21, 19–21).
Basketball
A sensational evening at East Gate Mall saw the Team Ireland 3×3 basketball team win both of their opening matches in the group rounds, with a 17-10 victory over Romania and an 11-10 win over group favourites Netherlands. With the top two teams in each group progressing to the knock out stages, Ireland’s next match will be against Latvia.
The newly formed Irish team played Romania twice in recent weeks, where they were beaten well. Stepping up to the bigger EYOF stage, and having worked on their communication, tonight Team Ireland were the team to beat.
Speaking tonight, Faye McDonnell described the emotion and how the work that the team have put in on improving their communication as a team, saying,
“It’s important we communicate well because it’s so fast paced. Just that we’re holding each other accountable and telling each other where to go, and I think it really showed today, obviously getting the win, but I think we are really together as a team because of our communication. The atmosphere here was brilliant. To represent your country, there is no greater honour. It’s such an incredible feeling.”
Team Leader and former international 3×3 player Niamh Dwyer was proud of the girls who have all but qualified to the next round, saying,
“I’m so proud of those ladies to go out and perform the way they have their execution against one of the top teams in Europe there, the Netherlands. To get to a quarter of final in a multi-sport event for Irish basketball is unbelievable.”
(Interviews with all team members available on soundcloud:
Cycling
Today marked the first day of action for Team Ireland’s cyclists, who performed strongly in the 10km out-and-back time trial, held in soaring temperatures that reached 40 degrees. With a slightly downhill first 5km, the combination of a gradual climb and intense heat in the second half made it an exceptionally tough day on the bike for the Irish riders.
The top performer for Ireland was Belfast’s Emer Heverin, who finished 7th in the Girls’ Time Trial with a time of 14:25.615, just twenty seconds off the winning time. Aoife Clarke and Katie Turner placed 46th and 59th respectively.
In the boys’ event, all three Irish riders placed within the top 35. Cork’s Tom Lane was the highest finisher, clocking a time of 13:05.998 to place 23rd. Caleb McGreevy, who is also set to compete in the mountain bike event tomorrow, finished 28th, while Rían McCrystal, nephew of Paralympic Champion Eve McCrystal, placed 35th.
Speaking after her race, Heverin was buoyed by her performance, which saw her overtake a rider who had started ahead of her,
“You kind of just have to go as hard as you can, but there was a Belgian racing in front of me, and I saw her at the corner. I knew I was catching her, so I put my head down and got around her. She’d started 30 seconds ahead of me. I could just see her on the roads and I was like, right, I need to try and catch her.”
Team Ireland Cycling Leader Michael Black said the performances bode well for the road race on Thursday and praised the athletes’ efforts in tough conditions,
“The conditions out here are extremely tough for these young riders and overall we wanted to try and set up an environment where they could perform the best, like every other nation is here. It’s a highly competitive field with really, really strong riders that some of the girls and boys will know from racing in the continent.
“The competitiveness of everyone here is fantastic and Erin’s is finishing the top 10 position of seventh overall. And I think the position is one thing, but I suppose the time gap to that, to the leader, she’s only just under 20 seconds off gold in that sense and even less off a medal. So that’s really, really positive. And with Tom 23rd overall in the really, really competitive field of that boys’ race.”
Gymnastics
Top performances for Team Ireland gymnasts in the All Around qualifying rounds saw the men’s team finish tenth overall. Chester Enriquez and Finlay Hazelton, who are both members of Origin Gymnastics (where Olympic Champion Rhys McClenaghan trains) will be in action again later this week after qualifying for apparatus finals. Enriquez qualified for the vault final in third place and the floor final in seventh place. Hazelton also qualified for the final, with seventh overall. A strong overall showing for Robert Ward resulted in 26th overall, with Hazelton 36th.
Enriquez was pleased with his progression Speaking after the competition Enriquez said,
“Today was pretty good. I’ve made vault final and floor final. I had a really good first vault which qualified me for the final.”
Happy with his results, and in particular his vault routine, Finlay Hazelton said,
“I was happy with my parallel bars and my vault routine. Specifically, with my first vault when I did a double twist and yurchenkos, and only took a .3 second hop. I was really happy with that because I didn’t think I could land it.”
Swimming
It was a busy day for Team Ireland swimmers in Skopje, with all athletes in pool action. Julia Dziedzic finished 8th in the finals of the Girls’ 200m Backstroke with a time of 2:20.77. Competing, the Dublin swimmer was ranked 10th, and improved her placing to qualify through yesterday’s rounds and to finish an eventual eighth place.
Speaking after her final, the fifteen-year-old said,
“It’s amazing. It’s my first ever European competition, so making a final and placing eighth is amazing. I was not expecting that because I was 10th going in, so I’m really happy.”
It was a busy morning for Dziedzic who was also contesting the 400m Freestyle event, where her 7th place in her heat and time of 4:39.06 was not enough to progress.
Shea Mathers opened his EYOF with a solid swim, qualifying for the semi-finals of the Boys’ 200m Butterfly with a time of 2:14.98. The Banbridge Amateur SC swimmer finished fifth in his heat with a time of 2:12.41. Speaking after the race he said,
“Just be involved in this team and to make my first semifinal, it’s actually unbelievable. My plan was to go out nice and easy and smooth on the first 50 and hope it would all came in together. It nearly did, except for the last 60 metres when the turn wasn’t great. But otherwise it was good.”
Anna Joyce placed 6th in her 200m Breaststroke Heat 2:50.24 and did not progress to the next round, and switches her focus now to the 100m Breaststroke.
Table Tennis
Fourteen-year-old Peadar Sheridan eased through his first group match of the EYOF, with a dominant performance, winning 3-1 (11:2, 11:9, 10:12, 11:6). The Belfast player was competing against Ughur Nazarli of Azerbaijan, and worked on keeping his focus by taking control early in the game. Speaking afterwards he said,
“There was a lot of expectation and pressure, but I felt like if I just got the first few points of the match I’d settle in, so that’s what helped me. It was actually quite tricky because he has pimples (on his racket), which a lot of players on the tour don’t have, so it was a much different game, so I was just trying to get used to it.
“After the second set, he put up more of a fight. I think his coach was telling him to attack more. So I knew that was what the coach was going to say, so I was prepared for that.”
Sheridan is back in action tomorrow where he competes against Romania’s Robert Istrate in the morning and Serbia’s David Capanda in the afternoon. He needs one more win to qualify for the knock-out rounds.
RESULTS – TUESDAY 22 JULY:
Athletics, Girls 400m Final, Erin Friel Bronze medal in a PB time of 54.02
Athletics, Girls 400m Hurdles Heat, Ellis McHugh qualifies for Final (1st in heat with 59.99)
Athletics, Girls 2000m SC Heat, Lucie Cawley does not qualify for the final (6th in heat with 7:02.97)
Badminton, Boys Singles, Luke Marks (IRL) Beaten By Georgi Ruptsov (BUL) 0-2 (13:21, 15:21)
Badminton, Boys Singles Group Play, Luke Marks (IRL) Beat Marko Surina (CRO) 2-0 (23:21, 21:18)
Badminton, Girls Singles Group Play, Hannah Shochan (IRL) Beat Abiramy Kokilan (NOR) 2-0 (21:12, 21:17)
Badminton, Boys Singles Group Play, Luke Marks (IRL) Beaten by Jakub Dulemba (POL) 0-2 (17:21, 19:21)
Badminton, Girls Singles Group Play, Hannah Shochan (IRL) Beaten by Daria Gherasim (ROU) 1-2 (21:17, 15:21, 19:21)
Basketball, Girls 3×3 Group C Match 11, Ireland V Netherlands
Basketball, Girls 3×3 Group C Match 4, Ireland Beat Romania 17-10
Cycling, Girls Time Trial, Emer Heverin 7th in 14:25.615, Aoife Craig 46th in 15:20.293, and Katie Turner 59th in 15:42.990.
Cycling, Boys Time Trial, Tom Lane 23rd in 13:05.998, Caleb McGreevy 28th in 13:11.389, Rian McCrystal 35th in 13:19.696
Gymnastics, Boys All Around, 10th Team, Robert Ward 26th overall AA, Finlay Hazelton 36th overall AA and 7th qualifier for vault final, Chester Enriquez 3rd qualifier for vault final, 7th qualifier for floor.
Swimming, Girls 200m Backstroke Final, Julia Dziedzic 8th in 2:20.77
Swimming, Girls 400m Freestyle Heat, Julia Dziedzic does not qualify for final (7th in heat with 4:39.06)
Swimming, Boys 200m Butterfly Semi-final, Shea Mathers does not qualify for final (5th in heat with 2:12.41).
Swimming, Girls 200m Breaststroke Heat 1, Anna Joyce 6th place with 2:50.24
Table Tennis, Boys Singles, Peadar Sheridan (IRL) Beat Ughur Nazarli (AZE)
SCHEDULE DAY 3 – WEDNESDAY 23 JULY (NOTE TIMES COULD CHANGE DUE TO HEAT):
(All times are Irish times – North Macedonia is one hour ahead)
08:00 Athletics, Boys’ 5km Race Walk Final, Matthew Newell
08:25 Athletics, Boys’ High Jump Final, Conor Penney
08:30 Table Tennis, Boys’ Singles, Peadar Sheridan (IRL) V Robert Istrate (ROU)
08:36 Swimming, Girls 200m Freestyle Heats, Julia Dziedzic
09:00 Gymnastics, Girls All Around, Estelle Volkoff, Roisin Hickey
09:30 Athletics, Girls 200m Heats, Molly Daly
10:00 Athletics, Boys 200m Heats, Joe Burke
10:00 Cycling, Boys Mountain Bike, Caleb McGreevy
15:30 Table Tennis, Boys Singles, Peadar Sheridan (IRL) V David Capanda (SRB)
17:00 Swimming, Girls 200m Freestyle Semis, Julia Dziedzic