France Win Historic European Junior Triple

France won a dramatic European U19 Mixed Team Championship final against England in Prague to complete their first ever 'triple'.

France's immense young talents Amir Khaled-Jousselin and Lauren Baltayan won the Individual titles last week and both were victorious again in the Mixed Team final to complete a trophy lockout by Les Bleus.

England, however, ran them incredibly close in the final. It finished two-all in matches and 7/7 in games, but France were crowned champions on a points countback, winning 134-114.

England had won 35 out of 39 editions of the Mixed Team event since it began in 1983, but went into this year's championship as second seeds. France were defending champions, having won the title for the first time ever last year in Bucharest. The format changed this year, though, with two boys and two girls, which some felt gave England a slightly better chance.

Khaled-Jousselin gave the French a flying start. The 16-year-old from Nancy beat Dylan Roberts 11-3 11-4 11-3 in 32 minutes.

Mariam Eissa then came up against Baltayan, who is already an established member of France's senior squad. Although the Frenchwoman won 12-14 11-6 11-6 11-4, Eissa taking the first game on a tiebreak gave England a foothold in the match.

Emily Coulcher-Porter, who finished runner-up in last week's Individual event, began the England fightback with a straight games victory over Ines Guyot in the third rubber.

Heading into the final match, France knew that Thomas Garcia would probably only need to get one game to seal the title, as the points difference between the teams was significant. He did just that, taking the second game in a 11-6 6-11 11-4 12-10 defeat to England's Ismail Khalil.

It was France's second straight victory in the Mixed championship - and with Khaled-Jousselin and Baltayan both young enough to play in next year's event too, the future looks bright for French squash.

Baltayan, 17, said: "We have dominated European squash! Winning both individual titles and the team title is incredible for us. We're so proud of the squash we've produced in the last 10 days. It's very inspiring for other juniors in France.

"This team will all be here next year so we'll keep this team spirit. We've got a taste of winning and our team spirit is stronger than any other. We're super close and that's made us enjoy it even more."

Team-mate Paola Lincou added: "We got a little bit stressed out when Lauren dropped a game and after the third match we started to do the maths and we weren't completely sure. But when Thomas won that second game in the last match, we knew we were in a good spot."

England coach Tim Vail said: "The new format this year suited us and I'm proud that we ran them so close. We weren't expected to win in the first place. We were the second seeds. But we will come back next year and try to get the title back."

Hosts Czech Republic won the bronze medal - their best finish since 2019 - after beating Spain 3/0 thanks to wins from Martin Stepan, Karolina Sramkova and Aneta Sezemska.

Poland - featuring Jan Samborski, Sofi Zrazhevska, Tola Otrząsek and Karol Krysiak - beat Belgium in the play-off for 5th place to record their best ever finish in the championships