Arco, the Paralympic champions Enza Petrilli and Stefano Travisani receive the Collare d’Oro

For an athlete it is always important to win. But the recognition obtained on the podium has an even more special flavor if it has earned a world title and becomes even more so if the competitive victory is also worth recognition from the highest sporting authorities of a nation. After last winter’s world championship triumph at the Dubai Outdoor World Championships, the Paralympic archery world champions have earned the highest sporting honor bestowed by CONI and the Italian Paralympic Committee. The great protagonists of the outdoor event held for the first time in the middle of winter in the United Arab Emirates earned it by placing the arrows in the center of the target 70 meters away Stefano Travisani, winner of the open mixed team recurve gold and Vincenza Petrilli , who in addition to the mixed title with Travisani, also won the individual title and the “doubles” title together with Veronica Floreno (but since this is not a competition included in the Paralympics program, it does not give the right to the Collar). To the happiness of the president Fitarco Mario Scarzella and the technical director of the Paralympic national team Willy Fuchsova, present in person at what we can define as the sports festival par excellence, among the many champions awarded in Rome in the monumental Gymnasium of the University of Foro Italico there were the two blue archers who had a fantastic season. The ceremony, broadcast live on Rai 2, was inaugurated as usual by the president of Coni, Giovanni Malagò and the president of the Italian Paralympic Committee, Luca Pancalli. Together with them, in one of the first official outings, the new Minister of Sport, Andrea Abodi, who stated: “There is an organ in the body that perfectly indicates the state of our health: it is the heart. Mine, today , signals strong emotions”.

First times

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Emotions that Vincenza Petrilli also experienced, called on stage by the presenters Arianna Secondini and Marco Franzelli: “This was the year of the first times – smiled “Enza” -. And of the first medals. I consider myself lucky because I had in Stefano Travisani is a great point of reference. Together we have worked to bring home some important results”. Results arrived a few months after the individual silver won on his debut at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo… As for Travisani, there was a passage on one of Stefano’s sources of inspiration: Alex Zanardi. “I had the pleasure of meeting him – were the words of the blue archer -; Alex is one of the many who gave me strength, in my worst moment. The strength to get up, to get up and still be here. Two years later I I got to meet him again right at the gold collar ceremony and I was greatly amazed that he remembered me…”. In fact, it is not the first time that Stefano has received this honour: Travisani’s first Collar d’Oro dates back to 2017, the year of his debut in the Paralympic World Cup held in Beijing: also on that occasion the Lombard athlete transplanted to Veneto she had won gold in mixed, but on that occasion with Elisabetta Mijno, the teammate with whom she also won mixed team silver at the Tokyo Paralympics.