Hosts Beat International Contenders at Italian Challenge

More than 700 of the best Italian archers took part in the 43rd Italian Indoor Archery Championships on 20/21 February 2016. The shooting line spanned 128 target butts – along just one wall.

Just one day before, 450 athletes – both Italian and international – competed in the second Italian Challenge, a mixed team indoor competition for recurve, compound and barebow archers organised by FITARCO and the local Seven Arrows Archery Club.

Qualification consisted of the normal 60-arrow indoor ranking round at 18-metres, then the top 32 ranked pairs in each of the three divisions advanced to the elimination phases, run to cumulative scoring for compound competitors and the set system for barebow and recurve.

Among the big international names were Mister Perfect Mike Schloesser and Inge van Caspel, Irina Markovic and Peter Elzinga, Rick van der Ven and Sarina Laan – all Dutch doubles – while Rick van den Oever paired up with Italy’s Elena Tonetta. Danish World Archery Champion Stephan Hansen, too, made the trip, with Indoor Archery World Cup winner Sarah Holst Sonnichsen.

World number one – compound man – Sebastien Peineau and number two – woman – Natalia Avdeeva shot on the same line as club athletes, who took the chance to accept the challenge.

Italian para archer Alberto Simonelli, with Rio 2016 in sight, equalled his Italian record of 597 during qualification, drawing with Hansen. Elzinga landed as the third compound man on 596, Schloesser fourth with 594. The top two recurve men were Luca Melotto and van der Ven, both on 587, though Melotto ranked higher as he had more 10s.

National records went to junior recurve woman Tanya Giaccheri, with 586, and Eric Esposito, a young barebow archer who posted 562 out of a possible 600 points.

The international teams, from their top seedings, performed well – but not so well as the Italian defenders, who won all three gold medals in the mixed team Italian Challenge.

Federico Pagnoni and Marcella Tonioli beat Peineau and Adveeva to the top of the podium in the compound competition; Schloesser and van Caspel came third. Melotto, paired with Guendalina Sartori, beat Mandia brother-sister pair Mass and Claudia to the recurve gold. Erika Sabatini and Alessandro Carassi won the barebow event.

The Italian Challenge: A chance to take on the best archery Italy has to offer, in a unique mixed team format.