Sergio PAGNI: “It’s like we moved the indoor conditions into the outdoor ones”


  Photos: Dean ALBERGA and Jean-Denis GITTON Last year, you were ranked in the World’s top three compound archers. This year, it seems to be a little bit tougher for you: what is the reason?  Well, I feel that the 50 meters round is a little difficult so it is indeed hard for me to say that I am currently having a good season. However, I still reached the individual quarterfinals in almost every World Cup stage and the world championships as well, so being seeded in the 5th or 6th position this season is quite good for me. I got the individual bronze medal in Ogden last month and for sure I would like to win here in Shanghai. I would like to increase my “number of golds”, my ranking in other words. My results have not been that good, but I am not in a bad position so far.   It looks like the new 50 meters format created new pressure on your shoulders, as if you had to renew your shooting abilities. Am I right?  The scoring is very high at this distance even during match plays. Let’s say that we don’t have a huge margin to recover from a bad arrow. Archers from the top 10 or 20 ranking are very close to each other. I would like to compare this new rule to indoor shooting: we are not shooting at 70 metres anymore, we get close to the target and this equally means that the global scoring is getting higher and higher. You can’t lose a single point. I am not surprised when someone is shooting an almost perfect score or a perfect score at each end. You can see what happened in Torino this summer when Reo WILDE (USA) broke the world record with a 714 with a possible 720. This is also what happened in my quarterfinal versus Gabriel BADENHORST (RSA) when he shot a 149 out of a possible 150. It’s strange but it’s like we moved the indoor conditions into the outdoor. I can shoot some good scores during the qualifications but I can drop one or two points during a match. Most of the time, this is too much. You can see that the level is very high but this is not a problem for anyone there; we have to shoot well every time during the competition.   What do you think of the 17 year old archer Christopher PERKINS, the new World Outdoor Champion? He shot very well; he is amazing. I think he shot a very good competition in Torino. I think we need to make a difference between winning a World Cup and winning a world championship: in fact, the problem is not about winning but repeating it. In any case, winning a world championship is never a question of fortune or luck. You have to be having a good day. However to shoot well that particular day, you also have to remember your sequence all the time. This is what you do, this is what you need but you are not alone! Most of the archers have the right cards in their hands and it’s like playing poker: even if you have some bad cards in your hands, you have to play with them. Don’t you feel a little bit disappointed with your individual final ranking from Torino (6th), even if you won the mixed team gold medal with your teammate Marcella TONIOLI?  I was defeated by Christopher PERKINS (CAN), a very good archer, in the quarterfinals, He shot a great 149 points and I must say this is a good performance at this stage of the competition! I really wanted to reach the final there in my country, so this loss is a disappointment. Then my teammate Marcella and I won gold in the mixed team event! This is my first gold medal in a world championship and we are both very pleased about it. In a way, I am quite satisfied with my world championship you know.   What about your daily life? You are working in an archery shop in Italy. How do you feel about living 100% of your time in archery?  (Laughs) I really enjoy my job! I am working not far from my house (Montecatini Terme near Florence) with my boss Paulo and we make all the equipment set up for the compound Italian team. When they are leaving for a competition in Italy or anywhere in the world, they come to meet us in order to do bow tuning, cable strings and so on. We are working with high level archers in Italy and I am really enjoying it. I like discussing technical problems, about different points of view about tuning… We are really satisfied to work in such a way. Now we are trying to be as close as possible to the Italian recurve team but they are not really into tuning and these kinds of things. We will see if, one day, things might change!   Does your job allow you to shoot everyday? Absolutely. We have a range in our shop. I can shoot every day if I need it. However, I am not used to shooting every day because my training routine consists in working on my mental game 99% of the time. Archery, for me, is more like working on my mind than anything else. I just keep having the best bow tuning, checking up how things are running in my hands, so to speak. Well, I am shooting a lot of arrows but I am not really focusing on this aspect of my archery game. I split my season into four working groups and my highest priority is to work on my mental game in each group. Then I practice no more than 3 or 4 times in a week.   You are living at home with your girlfriend Pia Carmen LIONETTI (ITA) who is also an archer from the Italian team: did you set up a sort of « home rule » which would consist of not talking about archery when together?  (Laughs) I will make a very personal answer. I would say it’s normal for two archers, especially a wife and a husband living together to talk about our work once we are both at home. Our work is archery but we want to make it as relaxing as possible. There are two different points of view: when you are relaxing, you don’t really want to talk, not making any problem with a competition, bows and so on… I do usually ask Pia to avoid talking archery; as any couple, we want to run a normal life. When you are at home, you can’t always talk about work, right? Then, if we have a problem with archery, we try to fix it on the field as much as we can and it works well! This competition in Shanghai is very important for both of us as far as we would really enjoy making the Final in Istanbul together. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of pressure on each other at this time, so we try to keep things moving forward and this also includes our life as a couple for sure. This period is the conclusion of the season, we put a lot of effort into the previous competitions so we have to keep being in the same state of mind until it lasts.   Jean-Denis GITTON World Archery Communication