The Italians finished with a clear lead, boasting 21 gold, 12 silver, and 14 bronze medals ahead of Germany's nine golds and Spain's eight.

Viola Paoletti claimed Italy's first gold of the day in girls' 3000 metres athletics event at the Národný Atletický Štadión as she ran a personal best time of 9min 25.34sec.

Her performance was one of six individual records among the eight-strong field, including the top four finishes.

Tukey's Edibe Yağız was agonisingly close to snatching gold but had to settle for second as she clocked in just 0.49 after Paoletti.

Carla Moreno Cabezas made up the top three with her time of 9:32.07 to comfortably beat Ireland's fourth-placed Clodagh Gill by 15.18.

Sixth-placed Myrto Valacha of Greece and Slovakia's Jana Mihalkova in eighth also set new personal bests.

Alice Pagliarini, Stefano Pizzato, Valentina Vaccari, and Elisa Marcello then secured another athletics victory with their best time ever as a quartet in the girls' medley relay.

The group combined for a time of 2:11.27 to narrowly beat Poland and Hungary with respective times of 2:11.30 and 2:11.59.

Over in Slovenská Ľupča and Zvolen, Italy recorded a sensational golden double as they won both the girls' and boys' volleyball tournaments.

The girls overcame Turkey 25-12, 27-25, 20-25, 25-21 to reclaim their 2017 crown after Russia won gold at Baku 2019.

The boys blitzed Bulgaria 25-20, 25-21, 25-23 to clinch a third consecutive gold in the event.

Other team sport finals also took place as France emulated Italy's feat in the basketball with the girls beating Spain 68-48 and the boys getting the better of Lithuania 78-66.

Denmark lost both handball finals in Zvolen and Detva as the girls fell 30-26 to Hungary and the boys narrowly suffered a 29-28 defeat to Germany.