European Games 2019 Day 7: As it happened

8:44pm - Thanks!

That's it from us, thanks for following along, be here tomorrow.

Stay with the Olympic Channel live streams for highlights from today's action. (Check for restrictions where you are)

European Games Day 7 headlines and highlights

• Abdulrashid Sadulaev wins 97kg gold with a hug after rival forfeits
• He's never wrestled a bear, nor does he intend to
• Netherlands wins men's team sprint underlining world dominance
• Belarus had an incredible day in canoe sprint winning 4 gold medals

8:34pm - Olympic Channel asks Sadulaev if he's ever wrestled a bear

Oh no they didn't!

The Olympic Channel asked Olympic wrestling champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev if he'd ever wrestled a bear like his fellow Dagestani Khabib Nurmagomedov (Yes, the guy who beat Connor McGregor):

Sadulaev: "No I have not."

Olympic Channel (Via a translator): Would you like to?

Sadulaev: "No. Bears can't wrestle so why would I bother."

8:32pm - European Games Gymnastic qualifying highlights

Here's the best of the action from the all-around qualifiers yesterday.

8:30pm - Beach Soccer results

The final four are: Ukraine, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal.

8:25pm - Badminton semi-finals

8:07pm - Cycling: Dutch gold in men's team sprint

The Netherlands beat France to take men's team sprint gold in a repeat of the final at February's World Championships.

Jeffrey Hoogland anchored the Dutch home to a comfortable triumph as they cemented their status as the top team on the planet.

Great Britain took the bronze with six-time Olympic gold medallist Jason Kenny seeing them to victory over the Czech Republic.

Kenny goes in tomorrow's individual sprint heats with old rival Gregory Bauge also in the field, although the Dutch pair of Hoogland and world champion Harrie Lavreysen will be tough to beat.

8:01pm - Russia takes women's team sprint

Daria Shmeleva and Anastasiia Voinova powered Russia to gold in the women's team sprint.

The pair were comfortably clear at halfway and Voinova brought it home, coming home more than a second in front of Lithuania's Migle Marozaite and Simona Krupeckaite.

7:56pm - Track Cycling: gold for Greece

Christos Volikakis took gold in a thrilling end to the men's scratch race.

The Greek kicked for home with a lap and a half remaining, and somehow had the strength to hold off Poland’s Filip Prokopyszyn.

The winning time was 17:57.

Yauheni Karaliok pipped Ireland’s Felix English on the line to take bronze for Belarus.

7:51pm - Artistic gymnastics: Watch this girl

Belgium's Nina Derwael won gold in uneven bars at the 2018 Worlds in Doha and she's qualified top of the class in the balance beam here at the European Games.

7:37pm - Track cycling history in the making

Ganna Solovei takes the first track cycling gold in history at the European Games in the women’s points race.

 It’s her second European Games medal having taken silver in the individual time trial on the road four years ago in Baku.

 The Ukrainian lapped the field in the second half of the race to secure a bonus of 20 points in her winning tally of 30 point.

 Austria’s Verena Eberhardt and Czech racer Jarmila Machacova made an earlier breakaway to each pick up 20 points and they took silver and bronze with 27 and 25 respectively.

 Home hope Ina Savenka broke two laps from home to take the final sprint for 10 points to take her total to 24, missing out on the medals by just one point.

 Pre-race favourite Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands was imperious in the earlier sprints, but her failure to lap the field saw her finish fifth on 19 points ahead of Italy’s Letizia Paternoster on 14 points.

7:24 - Sadulaev: "I have no emotions at all"

Sadulaev speaks after his 97kg wrestling gold medal by forfeit:

"This is a non-standard victory. I knew in advance that the fight wouldn't take place. I found this out in the morning and I was very surprised. He has an injury. I saw him limp. He immediately said that he would not be able to perform in the final, so he congratulated me in advance."

"I have no emotions at all. I do not feel such pleasure as when I fight and win. I wish the fight took place. We have repeatedly fought. He's a very strong-willed guy. I think we would show a good fight. I wouldn't care if I lost, no big deal."

"The European Games in this hierarchy are in fourth place after the Olympics, world championships and European championships. Athletes cannot rest for a long time, so I'm here. For me, the European Games is another stage of preparation."

7:13pm - Track Cycling: First ever gold

Ukraine’s Ganna Solovei has put a lap on the field and gone into the lead of the women’s points race with 14 laps to go.

She’s on 30 and leads from Eberhardt and Machacova with Wild currently fourth on 19.

With track cycling replacing BMX this European Games it's the first ever medal at the 2nd Euro Games.

And it's all over!

Gold for Ganna Solovei.

7:01pm - Abdulrashid Sadulaev is up

The Olympic champ at 97kg faces Azerbaijan's Nurmagomed Gadzhiyev.

And it's over!

They hugged and Sadulaev wins the gold medal by forfeit.

Gadzhiyev is injured.

6:55pm - Women's Wrestling 53kg

And gold goes to Sweden!

The crowd don't like this.

Yulia Khavaldzhy is backed by quite a few Ukraine fans in the crowd but the referees have deducted two points from here.

Mattson wins 6-4.

Boos ring around the stadium.

Bronze medals go to Germany’s Nina Hemmer and Russia’s Stalvira Orshush.

6:47pm - First wrestling gold of the day goes to Azerbaijan

Olympic bronze medallist Haji Aliyev has beaten the defending champion Vladimer Khinchegashvili 10-2 to take gold.

3 more gold medal matches to come.

6:37pm - Men's skeet gold results

Sweden's Stefan Nilsson topped the podium in the men's shotgun skeet.

His 57 just edges Czech shooter Tomas Nydrle's 56. 

Italy's Gabriele Rossetti is bronze medallist with 46.

6:30pm - GBR off to team sprint flyer

Great Britain just blew Poland away in their team sprint heat.

One way traffic.

6:14pm - Beach Soccer: Spain top group!

Wow.

A spectacular end to the Spain-Italy match as Antonio Mayor chips the Italian keeper to complete his hat-trick and put Spain 6-5 up.

And it's all over.

Spain qualify top of Group B with Ukraine second.

The Italian players are flat out on the sand with their heads in their hands.

The Azurri lead for most of that match but let it slip away right at the end.

Super soccer.

6:04pm - Gymnastics: Georgia Mae Fenton is loving it

It's all new for GBR's 19-year-old Georgia-Mae Fenton at her first European Games.

She scored a 53.733 in her all-around qualification which currently puts her in second place behind Russia's Angelina Melnikova.

Great showing from Georgia-Mae Fenton.

6pm - Oleg not at his best?

We've seen a few uncharacteristic errors from defending artistic gymnastics all-around champion Oleg Verniaiev today.

Looks like his head isn't in the right place.

5:50pm - Wrestling: Mariya Stadnik into the final

3-time Olympic medallist Mariya Stadnik has fought her way to the gold medal match in the women's wrestling -50kg class.

Azerbaijan's superstar wrestler overpowered Turkey's Evin Demirhan 6-1 and demolished Poland's Anna Lukasiak in the previous round 10-0.

Set a reminder for that final: 18:40 Minsk time, 17:40 CEST.

5:42pm - Italy on target again in shotgun skeet

Italy's Diana Bacosi won gold and Chiara Cainero bronze in the women's shotgun skeet event.

France's Lucie Anastassiou took silver after a shootout with Bacosi.

The two were tied at 53, the Italian winning the shootout 4-3.

Chiara Cainero scored 42.

5:31pm - Badminton: Mia Blichfeldt through - just

There was a big scare for Europe's highest ranked shuttler Mia Blichfeldt today, she had to dig deep against Israel's Kesenia Polikarpova in her round of 16 match.

Polikarpova took a commanding lead by winning the first set 9-21, but the 2019 European mixed team champion rallied to win the final two sets.

It finished 2-1 to Blichfeldt: 9-21, 23-21, 17-21.

Her reaction at the end of the match said it all.

Blichfeldt faces Britain's Chloe Birch in the quarter final on Friday at 10:50am Minsk time, 9:50 CEST.

5:18pm - Italy's golden archer inspired by Robin Hood

Olympic Channel tracked down Mauro Nespoli who won men's recurve gold earlier today, and he's a lovely man.

He even answered our questions.

2 Olympic medals, 3 in Minsk, this bowman has plenty of experience.

How did he deal with the wind and rain?

"The conditions were bad today, I was looking at the trees to see where the wind blows from."

What was your archery inspiration?

"Disney's Robin Hood! I love it because I like foxes and he steals from the rich to give to the poor, and Lady Marian was also a cute fox so I admire him for that too."

5:09pm - Beach Soccer: Spain v Italy

Ukraine and Switzerland are through to the semi-finals, who will join them, Spain or Italy?

0-0 at the Olympic Sports Complex.

4:59pm - Badminton: Men's doubles quarter finals

Great Britain's Langridge and Ellis are in action vs Finland's Kaisti and Larkimo, that's just started at the Falcon Club.

Our first confirmed semi-finalist is Russia, Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov have beaten Belarus' Vlaar and Yanakiev.

Check out this Langridge/Ellis rally vs. France's Labar/Gicquel early in the tournament.

Blinding.

4:39pm - Gymnastics: Oleg Verniaiev on the pommel

Big score from the Ukraines' Olympic champ.

4:36pm - Gymnastics: Radivilov leads rings

Big performance from the Ukraine king of the rings.

4:22pm - Canoe sprint concludes

Hungary's Balint Kopasz won men's and Belarus' Maryna Litvinchuk women's K1 5000m races to cap off a dramatic day of canoe sprint

Men's K1 5000m

Kopasz managed to hit the line in 21min 45.255sec despite difficult conditions.

Portugal’s Fernando Pimenta paddled to silver with 21:46.554, and the Hoff added to his considerable medal collection with bronze.

He finished in 21:49.276.

Women's K1 5000m

Maryna Litvinchuk drew big roars from the crowd - whose spirits weren't dampened by the poor weather - when she won Belarus' 4th gold medal in the final for the 5000m.

Her 24:52.258 lifted her to the top of the podium above Hungary’s Dora Bodonyi who took silver in 24:53.003.

Slovakia’s Mariana Petrusova takes home a bronze medal with 24:59.099.

3:51pm - Mike Schloesser: still Mr. Perfect

Netherland's World No.1 Mike Schloesser has won the men's compound individual gold medal, beating Luxembourg's Gilles Seywert by a single shot.

It finished 144-145.

Croatia's Mario Vavro bags bronze.

Why do they call him Mr. Perfect?

Find out here:

3:32pm - Italy lead Great Britain second

Heat 1 of the women's team pursuit results are in, Italy start strong with more than a two second lead on second place GB.

Italy's team includes their 19-year-old rising star Letizia Paternoster, find out all the future of Italian cycling here.

3:30pm - Canoe sprint results

It's been raining medals in the canoe afternoon finals.

It's also just been raining.

Tough conditions for a paddle, but nothing the best on the continent can't cope with.

Women's K1 200m

Emma Joergensen added gold to the bronze she won this morning in the 500m.

The Dane crossed the line first in 41.625 seconds.

Watch the medals pile up for Hungary’s Danuta Kozak, that’s gold and three silver now.

Kozak came second in 42.160.

Poland’s Marta Walczykiewicz wears bronze after she clocked 42.408.

Men’s K1 200m

Rio 2016 silver medallist Maxime Beaumont won the men’s K1 200m gold.

The Frenchman's 38.976 time bettered Hungary’s Balazs Birkas, who put an 39.149 in his record book.

Belarus took bronze to add to their impressive tally, Dzmitry Tratsiakou finished in 39.351.

Men's C1 200m

There's more bounty for Belarus as Artsem Kozyr takes the C1 200m title.

That's the hosts' second canoe sprint gold.

And that with president Lukashenko watching on.

Italy's Nicolae Craciun takes silver and Spain's Alfonso Benavides captures bronze.

Times:

1. Artsem Kozyr 42.835
2. Nicolae Craciun 43.353
3. Alfonso Benavides 44.255

Women’s C1 200m

Make that three gold medals for Belarus!

Alena Nasdrova makes it thrice as nice for the hosts.

Germany’s Lisa Jahn paddles to silver in 51.656, and bronze medallist is Poland's Dorota Borowska with 51.731.

1. Alena Nasdrova 50.351
2. Lisa Jahn 51.656
3. Dorota Borowska 51.731

Women’s K2 200m

Ukraine take gold ahead of Germany with Belarus' surprise package Volha Khudzenka and Maryna Litvinchuk in third.

The Belorussian pairing pulled off a big shock yesterday when they won K2 500m gold and today they added bronze to the local haul.

Ukranian partnership Mariya Povkh and Liudmila Kuklinovska clocked 44.781 for gold to Germany’s Franziska John and Tina Dietze's 44.961 for silver.

Khudzenka and Litviinchuk crossed in 45.073.

3:29pm - Spain warming up

3:10pm - Track cycling gets underway

Ukraine in operation on the oval right now.

So much quality at these European Games including a lot of medallists from the recent World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland: sprinters Harrie Lavreysen, Jeffrey Hoogland and Roy van der Berg will be joined by Dutch team mates Kirsten Wild and former speed skater Laurine van Riessen.

Six-time Olympic gold medallist Jason Kenny headlines Team GB's men's track team in Belarus.

We're going to see six finals and gold medals flying here today.

2:58 - Archery gold for Italy!

Mauro Nespoli has just won men's recurve individual gold medal outscoring the Netherland's Steve Wijler.

Shooting through wind and rain - so heavy at one point that the Dutch team took shelter in a nearby tent - the Italian adapted best to the conditions.

Nespoli won out 6-4.

Bronze went to Spain's Pablo Gonzalez after he defeated Italy's David Pasqualucci 7-1.

2:39pm - Switzerland 10-0 Romania

Switzerland have scored 10 goals against Romania and are the first team to qualify for the Beach Soccer semi-finals.

2:01 - Alchemy in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions

More Games have been turned to gold - this time in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions.

We came close to a Russian clean sweep after the nation took 1st, 3rd and 4th in this discipline.

Yulia Zykova is first after she shot a 459.6.

The Czech shooter Nikola Mazurova prevented a Russian 1-2-3 with her 453.9 that secure silver.

Polina Khorosheva fires her way to bronze with a 444.0.

1:47pm - More unsung heroes.

No one ever thinks about the people behind the camera.

Focus.

11:42pm - Rain at the beach

Beach soccer doesn't feel very beachy right now.

The weather is playing havoc with the canoe sprints too.

1:20 - Curse of the live blog

We flagged up a young Turkish archer earlier - Mete Gazoz - and then he - No.4 - was knocked out by Swiss bowman - No.125.

A disappointed Gazoz told Olympic Channel: "What did I learn from this? I was afraid to lose and I lost. Next time I won't be afraid."

And just now in gymnastics Oleg Verniaiev has had a crash landing on the vault.

No wonder no one wants to talk to us.

1:08pm - Beach Soccer

Today's fixtures:

1pm - Gymnastics underway

Artistic gymnastics all-around qualifications are underway in the Minsk Arena.

We may not have Aliya Mustafina, with us - out of the event with an injury, but we do have Rio 2016 gold medallist Oleg Verniaiev, six-time European champion David Belyavskiy and fellow Russian star in the making Angelina Melnikova.

Not a bad line-up.

12:45 - "It's Timo Boll so what can you do?"

German table tennis player Timo Boll gave us one of the stories of the day yesterday when the 38-year-old paddler beat his 26-year-old rival Jonathan Groth to the gold medal.

This is from the Minsk 2019 news team:

The Dane established a 2-1 lead before the 38-year-old German superstar took over to claim his first European Games title and confirm his status as the continent's No.1.

"I really have fun playing. I really enjoy having a chance to play at such a high level, and at this age," Boll said.

"I have had some tough injuries and I thought it would be tough to come back to the top level. But somehow I managed and I'm even surprised myself. It's a good feeling."

Groth, who caused an upset by eliminating defending champion Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER) in the fourth round, had nothing but praise for his German rival.

"His knowledge of table tennis is absolutely insane. How he's thinking and decisions he makes during crucial moments," Groth said. "I played a very good game but, of course, it's Timo Boll, so what can you do?"

In the women's gold medal match, FU Yu (POR) beat HAN Ying (GER) 4-2 to win her first European title, aged 40.

Perhaps the happiest of the singles tournament's six medallists, who all earned a berth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, was 55-year-old NI Xia Lian (LUX). The veteran will be 57 years old when she competes at her fifth Olympic Games next year. She secured her place by beating YANG Xiaoxin (MON) in the match for third place.

"It's wonderful, I feel like I've been born again," NI said. "I cannot believe it. YANG played better and better. When she made 8-7 from 8-2 [in the last set] said to myself 'go' and ended the game. That was the most exciting moment in my life."

12:40 - Badminton and boxing - fertile ground for Team Ireland

12:39 - Turkey are on a roll

12:32 - Busy day for Mascot Lesik

It's a dog's life.

Oh, he's a fox.

11:23am - Canoe sprint medal results

The morning medals have already been awarded at the Regatta Course Zaslavl.

Women's K1 500m

The first gold medal of the day went to hosts Belarus in the women's K1 500m as Volha Khudzhenka took her second gold of the tournament.

Minsk's latest home hero once again defeated heavily decorated Hungarian Danuta Kozak who had to settle for silver.

Kozak has 5 Olympic gold medals and 14 world golds in the bank but it's the Belorussian who tops the podium again this morning.

Khudzhenka's 2:03.929 was too fast for Kozak's 2mins 04.176sec.

Denmark's Emma Joergensen took bronze in 2:04.989.

Khudzhenka beating Kozak really is big news when you consider the Hungary star sprinter's story, she came back from having a child after Rio 2016 at the 2018 world champs and won two gold medals.

With Tokyo 2020 just over a year off, in Kozak finally slowing down?

Canoe sprint results: men's K4 500m

Relentless Russia won the men's K4 500m gold in a time of 1:32.376.

Germany took silver in 1:32.541, Slovakia bronze with 1:33.721.

Spain and Saul Craviotto finished last in 9th place after a tough race.

In the heats Spain clocked 1min19secs and Belarus even less than that, while the final was won with 1:32...

The wind picked up and conditions worsened making things difficult for everyone.

Remember, we saw some torrential rain yesterday towards close of play, so weather is definitely a factor here in Minsk.

Hungary win women's Canoe sprint C2 500m

The C2 500m event went to Hungary who had had enough of shocks and surprises.

Virag Balla and Kincso Takacs restored their natural order with gold and a time of 2 minutes 11.129 seconds.

The hosts finished second to take another silver medal, Nadzeya Makarchanka and Volha Klimava clocked 2:12.924.

Russia’s Kseniia Kurach and Olesia Romasenko raced to bronze in 2:14.194.

The British team finished 9th, Chloe Bracewell and Katie Reid describing the conditions as "brutal".

Listen to the wind in the background!

Hungary on top again in women's K4 500m canoe sprint

Having been upstaged by the upstart hosts on a number of occasions already in Minsk, Hungary were out to re-assert their authority in the K4 500.

They were pushed right to the limit by Belarus with woman-of-the-moment Khudzhenka on board, but Hungary held on by a fraction.

1. Hungary 1:41.526
2. Belarus 1:41.64
3. Poland 1:42.851

After the race Anna Karasz talked about the conditions too:

"We were trying to make a good start, but I think our power is in the middle of the distance. First of all, we mentally supported each other. The wind was very very strong and we never got comfortable with it."

She also had some fighting words, after she was asked what she thought about teammate Danuta Kozak winning two medals in an hour she said:

On team-mate Danuta KOZAK (HUN) winning two medals in an hour:

"We can do even better."

Winners talk.

11:30am - Artistic gymnastics

Get set for another spectacular spectacular in the artistic gymnastics competition today.

Men's all-around and women's all-around qualifications coming up in half an hour!

10:33am - добрай раніцы!

And a very fine morning to you too from Minsk.

They're doing the sport again, lots of it, and we're right here to bring the very latest to you.

So much to come today that it's near impossible to summarise it all.

That doesn't mean we won't try.

We've got our man in Minsk at the archery following young Turkish rising star Mete Gazoz who has a lovely story about how archery helped him to overcome his speech impediment.

Gazoz won the individual event at the 2018 Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, Spain, and he's doing well in Minsk too, winning his round of 16 knockout match-up with Sweden's Ludwig Elof Erling Flink.

He'll take on Switzerland's Florian Faber in the men's recurve individual quarter finals.

He did this sweet interview with World Archery:

Spain's Saul Craviotto was in action today too, no medals in the morning events with Spain finishing last in the men's K4 500m final.

The double Olympic champion will be disappointed with that.

He will, at least, be well fed before this tournament: He won Spain's popular Masterchef reality TV cooking show and confided in Olympic Channel saying that before the show he couldn't boil an egg, and now he's a master of 'arroces' (Rice dishes like the most famous one that we all know - Paella).

Here's happier times on the water for Saul:

Look out today too for Olympic champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev - the Dagestan Dancer - in the -97kg freestyle wrestling gold medal final.

The Russian hero is scheduled to fight at 18:40 CEST, 19:40 local time in Minsk.

He'll take on Azerbaijan's Nurmagomed Gadzhiyev.

27 June:

09:00-10:10 Canoe sprint women's (K1 500m, C2 500m, K4 500m) and men's (K4 500m) finals

12:00-12:45 Shooting rifle and pistol: women's 50m rifle three positions final

13:00-17:00 Canoe sprint women's (K1 200m, C1 200m, K2 200m, K1 5000m) and men's (K1 200m, C1 200m, K1 5000m) finals

13:40-14:10 Archery recurve men's finals

14:20-15:00 Archery compound men's finals

15:45-16:45 Shooting shotgun: women's skeet final

17:00-18:00 Shooting shotgun: men's skeet final

17:40-19:15 Wrestling: men's freestyle finals (-65kg, -97kg), women's finals (-53kg, -68kg)

18:30-21:00 Cycling track: women's (points race and team sprint) and men's (scratch and team sprint) finals

What is the European Games?

The European Games is a multisport event that takes place every four years.

It doubles as European Championships in a number of sports and events, and counts towards Olympic qualifying in others.

The first event happened in Baku 2015, the second in Minsk, Belarus, and the third will be held in 2023 in the Polish city of Krakow and the Malopolska region.

At Minsk 2019, more than 4,000 athletes from 50 countries are taking part in the second European Gamesfrom 21 to 30 June 2019.

200 sets of medals will be awarded across 15 sports and 23 disciplines, with the action shown live on Olympic Channel (restrictions in certain countries and territories apply).

Four years ago, at the inaugural European Games in Baku, Russia topped the medal table (164) ahead of hosts Azerbaijan (56), and Great Britain (47).

The event is live on Olympic Channel in many regions (click here to watch or get more information), and find out more in our Olympic Channel guide to all you need to know about the European Games.