Arco, Mauro Nespoli in the World Cup final in Hermosillo, six Paralympic Azzurri in the arc

The Italy of the arch will be the protagonist in the key international appointments of the weekend. Mauro Nespoli is the only blue to have qualified for the final of the World Cup circuit which will take place on 9 and 10 September in Hermosillo, Mexico. In the same days the athletes of the Paralympic national team will also take the field for the final of the European Para-Archery Cup in Nove Mesto, in the Czech Republic. If Nespoli reached the Mexican appointment thanks to the victory of the stage in Medellin (Col), for then reaching fourth place in the fourth stage in Paris, the blues of para-archery earned the final of the tournament after the first stage which was held in Nove Mesto in May and then the European Championships in Rotterdam, valid as the second round , where Italy dominated the medal collection. At the end of the two competitions Elisabetta Mijno and Stefano Travisani reached the points needed to qualify in the open recurve, Matteo Bonacina and Eleonora Sarti in the open compound, Paolo Tonon and Asia Pellizzari in the W1.

World Cup finalists

On Saturday 9 September in Hermosillo the athletes of the compound division will take to the field to play for the podium of the world cup. The blue Elisa Roner came close to qualifying, but failed in the fourth stage in Paris to get the points to enter the top eight: Sara Lopez (Col), Tanja Gellenthien (Den), Ella Gibson (Gbr), the archers of India Swami and Vennam, Cho Su A (Kor), Liko Arreola (Usa) and the hostess Dafne Quintero (Mex). In the men, Matthias Fullerton (Den), the Indians Jawkar and Verma, the Americans Lutz and Sullivan, Mike Schloesser (Ned), Jozef Bosansky (Slo) and the landlord Miguel Becerra (Mex) will compete. In the recurve Mauro Nespoli will take the field on Sunday 10 September: his opponents cover almost all the first places in the world rankings, starting from the n.1 Marcus D’Almeida (Bra), to move on to the South Koreans Kim Woojin and Lee Woo Seok, l Indian Dhiraj Bommadevara, Moldovan Dan Olaru, Brady Ellison (USA) and Mexican Matias Grande. Competing for the podium in the women’s category will be Lisa Barbelin (Fra), Penny Healey (Gbr), Michelle Kroppen (Ger), the South Koreans Kang and Lim, Peng Chia-Mao (Tpe), Casey Kaufhold (Usa) and Alejandra Valencia (Mex ). Both days will start with the quarter-finals – the draw for the matches is scheduled for Friday 8 September – and will continue with the semi-finals and finals. For Mauro Nespoli it is the sixth final in his career: the Air Force archer reached this milestone in 2013 and 2018, then in 2019, where he obtained his best result, taking home the silver. The last act of the World Cup is now almost a habit for Nespoli who is in his third consecutive participation after those of 2021 and 2022.

The Para-Archery Cup finalists

Returning to Europe, as mentioned, there will be 6 Azzurri competing in the final of the European Para-Archery Cup. Italy is the only nation to have qualified its own representative in the men’s and women’s challenges of the three categories in the competition: open recurve, compound open and W1. The race program on Saturday 9 September will be entirely dedicated to the semi-finals, individual and mixed team. In the mixed recurve challenge in the morning between Italy (Mijno-Travisani) and Slovenia (Lavrinic-Fabcic) and in the individual Elisabetta Mijno will face the Slovak Ziva Lavrinc while Stefano Travisani with the Polish Lukasz Ciszek. In the compound Eleonora Sarti competes against the English Jessica Stretton and Matteo Bonacina with the Czech Leos Bartos. In the mixed Sarti and Bonacina will challenge the winner between Great Britain and France in the final on Sunday. In W1 Paolo Tonon faces the landlord Sarka Pultar Musilova (Cze) on Saturday, while Asia Pellizzari is already ready for the final for the gold medal: she will face the winner of the match between Victoria Kingstone (GBR) and Sarka Pultar Musilova on Sunday (Cze). The same goes for the W1 mixed team: Tonon-Pellizzari are waiting to meet their challenger in the final after Saturday’s match between the Czech Republic and Great Britain.

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