Italy’s junior women’s team win gold in tiebreaker

Italy’s Tatiana Andreoli, Lucilla Boari and Vanessa Landi became recurve junior women’s team World Archery Champion by defeating China’s Li Jiaman, Long Xiaoqing and Xu Zhiyun in a shoot-off in the Rosario 2017 final.

China took the first two sets to lead the match, 4-0, before Italy reacted and came from behind to tie the match at four set points apiece and send it to a shoot-off.

China shot two eights and a nine; Italy, a pair of nines and an eight – and celebrated victory.

“It’s nice to have won the shoot-off because we were four points down,” said Rio 2016 Olympian Lucilla. “China helped us a little bit, letting us take the last two sets. Then, in the shoot-off, we were focused and we got a little bit luckier and won it.”

Seeded eighth overall with 1879 points in qualification, Italy beat Russia in a shoot-off, Korea, and Poland in straight sets, 6-0, on its way to the final against third seed China.

The junior title is Andreoli, Boari and Landi’s first win as a team, just one week ahead of the Mexico City 2017 World Archery Championships, where they will shoot together again.

“It’s very motivational because this gold medal is the result of believing ‘yes, we can do it’,” said Vanessa.

 The 2017 World Archery Youth Championships run 2 to 10 October in Rosario, Argentina.