Italy, Iran win Yankton recurve junior team titles

The recurve junior women’s team from Italy and the recurve junior men’s team from Iran secured 2018 World Archery Indoor Championship titles at the NFAA Easton Archery Centre in Yankton, USA on recurve Sunday.

Defending Champion Italy, represented by Tatiana Andreoli, Tanya Giaccheri and Aiko Rolando, defeated Russian athletes Tatiana Plotnikova, Svetlana Gomboeva and Ariuna Budaeva in straight sets, 6-0.

“I’m so excited! Defeating Russia was one of my biggest dreams because they are one of the most important and strongest recurve teams in the world,” said Andreoli.

“At the beginning of the week we had some differences between us [within the team], so we had to talk and make it work. After all, it all went well. We are very happy.”

Tatiana and Tanya were part of the recurve junior women’s team that won gold two years prior in Ankara 2016. In Yankton, they were joined by world indoor debutant Rolando.

Coming from behind, Reza Shabani, Kiyan Moradi and Seyedabolfazl Hosseini from Iran defeated Ukrainian men Roman Sheremet, Oleksandr Pantsyru and Ivan Kozhokar in a shoot-off.

“We tried our best. We were four points down but we didn’t think that the match was over. We came back and found the way to beat them,” said Reza.

“We were full of stress in the shoot-off but the will to see the Iranian flag rising was stronger. We did what we could.”

The Ukrainian men’s team took the first two sets with totals of 57 and 58 points. Then Iran scored a pair of 58s to Ukraine’s 57s, to tie the match at four points each. In the shoot-off Ukraine scored 10-6-9; Iran: 9-9-8.

Ukraine’s junior women’s team and the USA’s junior men’s team won bronze.

The 2018 World Archery Indoor Championships takes place in Yankton, USA on 14-19 February.