France have won the 2022 European Girls’ Team Championship.
The girls completed their final matches under very heavy wind at Oddur Golf Club.
The final match for gold opposed France to Sweden which demonstrated strong performances through close matches.
The first French foursome Maylis LAMOURE & Constance FOUILLET played against Nora SUNDBERG & Meja ÖRTENGREN, a familiar Swedish pairing to the 2021 Junior Vagliano Trophy where they won all their matches for the Continent of Europe. The Swedish pair started off strong by taking the lead early on while the second morning foursome, opposing Vairana HECK & Nastasia NADAUD to Filippa SUNDQUIST & Elin PUDAS REMLER, was more in favour of France.
The heavy winds required the Championship Committee to stop play for one hour. When play was resumed, both foursomes went back on the course and confirmed the respective early lead. Both teams secured one point and the winner would have to be decided in the afternoon matches.
The singles were tight between the two countries on the front nine. But then the last two singles started to define themselves with French Vairana HECK 2 up after 14 and Swedish Meja ÖRTENGREN 2 up after 13. Maylis LAMOURE then began to take the lead of her match against Nora SUNDBERG as she was also 2-up after 16.
Constance FOUILLET was the first to score a point as she won her match against Swedish Kajsalotta SVARVAR on the 18th green. She was quickly followed by Maylis LAMOURE who imposed herself 3&1 over Nora SUNDBERG.
The Swedish team then came back with Filippa SUNDQUIST and Meja ÖRTENGREN both taking one point over Carla DE TROIA and Nastasia NADAUD. Finally, it was French Vairana HECK, leader of the stroke play qualification, who determined the outcome of the match by defeating Nathalie BORG.
France therefore claimed the gold medals for the first time since 2014, while Sweden received the silver medals and second place on the podium.
In the match for the third place and bronze medals, Germany took on England. Both teams fought hard on the course to beat their opponent and the difficult conditions.
With one match up and one match down for both foursomes on the back nine, they agreed to concede one point each so that the girls could rest until play resumed and be ready for the afternoon singles.
2021 JVT player Helen BRIEM brought a 2nd point to Germany by defeating her opponent 5&4, while English Patience Rhodes won her match 3&2 to also bring one point to England.
The outcome of the match was then decided by the matches of German Marie-Agnes FISCHER and Philippa GOLLAN who both won their respective match over Olivia LEE and Ellen YATES.
Germany won the bronze medals and secured the final place on the podium against England who finished 4th.
Czech Republic dominated their matches, claiming the 5th rank over Denmark which finished 6th. Spain also won all of their singles securing the 7th position on the final ranking over Belgium which finished 8th.
In Flight B, Ireland won against Netherlands finishing respectively 9th and 10th. Switzerland defeated Finland finishing respectively 11th and 12th. Italy won against Scotland finishing respectively 13th and 14th. Portugal had already finished 15th the previous day.
In Flight C, Slovakia had also already secured its spot at the 16th rank. The hosts Iceland finished 17th and Scotland 18th.