The Closing Ceremony for the 2nd European Games here last night harked back to Belarus folk history - but also looked forward to the country’s burgeoning technological future.

The 2nd European Games have officially come to an end as the Flame of Peace was put out at the Closing Ceremony here tonight.

Russia, boosted on the final day of the European Games by more golds from the likes of all-round artistic gymnastics champion David Belyavskiy and track cycling women’s sprinter Anastasiia Voinova, finished with almost twice as many medals - and golds - than its nearest challenger - hosts Belarus.

Ukraine ended the concluding day of European Games karate action here with two out of six gold medals in kumite contests - but the performance of the final session came from an exciteable Italian, Luca Maresca, who won a dramatically fluctuating men's under-67 kilograms contest against Mario Hodzic of Montenegro.

Britain’s Olympic bronze medallists and Commonwealth champions Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis upset the odds today as they beat Denmark’s top seeds Anders Skaarp Rasmussen and Kim Astrup, the European champions, to the badminton men’s doubles European Games gold here today.

Spain won three gold medals on the opening day of the karate competition at the European Games here today, with both kata champions of Baku 2015 - Damián Quintero and Sandra Sánchez - retaining their titles, and Laura Palacio Gonzalez adding another title as she beat Meltem Hocaoglu of Turkey 4-1 to win the over-68 kilograms women’s kumite final.

Two Italian teams made up of Olympic gold medallists finished first and second in the mixed team shotgun skeet event here. 

The European Olympic Committees (EOC) will be surveying stakeholders on the sports programme for the 2023 European Games in Kraków and the Małopolska region.