Hickey Praises Brasov EYOF Organizers

(ATR) European Olympic Committees president Pat Hickey says Brasov has organized a "very successful" winter European Youth Olympic Festival.

The 11th edition of the winter EYOF ended Feb. 22. A total of 910 young athletes, 559 boys and 351 girls, from 45 European countries competed in eight sports.

Eighteen countries won medals. Russia topped the medal table with 22 medals followed by Germany and France. Hosts Romania won three medals including one gold to bag eighth place.

Hickey, who spent the whole period at the Games in Brasov, was "highly impressed".

"It was a very successful Games and very good comments have been made about the organisation and quality of the Games by the coaches and athletes," he said.

"Great praise is due to the organizing committee, the NOC of Romania and the EOC EYOF technical personnel."

Romanian NOC president Octavian Morariu also hailed the event’s success.

"In terms of sports, the festival had no major incidents, all the venues that hosted competitions were well appreciated by everybody… competitors, trainers and all the experts that visited us," he told a press conference.

"This means that the message we wanted to send out, that Romania can host winter competitions at a high level, was received properly.

He added: "It’s remarkable that a lot of people came to see the sports competitions, a lot of youth showed interest in the festival, and I consider this to be very important for the popularity of winter sports."

At Friday’s closing ceremony, following farewell addresses by Hickey and the organizers, the Brasov Olympic Flame was extinguished and EOC Flag passed on to the organizers of the 12th Winter EYOF in Montafon, Austria in 2015.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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