Pagni shooting for 2 Medellin golds: Individual and team

Sergio Pagni, Michele Nencioni and Federico Pagnoni made the Medellin compound men’s team gold medal match with wins over the Netherlands and El Salvador.

In both matches, the Italians scored 228 points for their 24 arrows.

Pagni, who remains the only compound man to have won more than one Hyundai Archery World Cup Final – he became Champion in 2009 and 2010, plus bronze medals in 2011 and 2013 – also shoots for gold individually in Medellin.

The last individual final he made was back in 2014, at the stage in Antalya.

“I’ve missed a couple of years for just one or two points,” he said. “Now I’m back and this final gives me an opportunity.”

While Sergio’s individual trophy cabinet hasn’t been bolstered since he won the World Archery Indoor Championships at the start of ’14, he’s picked up five team gongs on the Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit with Italy, plus a world indoor team crown.

“Italy is growing so much,” Sergio explained. “We have guys at home that are at international level and that could be here, and the team, every time, is working well and making points.”

“Pagnoni came fourth in qualification here and we have Michele who shot a 706 at the European Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago.”

“WhatsApp is very good for us. Every day we talk and have a good friendship group – when you’re on the shooting line this means a lot.”

When the mixed team event was introduced to international archery competition in 2011, the Italian pair of Pagni and Marcella Tonioli dominated. They won the first two world titles in the discipline, first in Torino and then two years later, in 2013, in Antalya.

But in Medellin, it’s Pagnoni who is partnered with Tonioli in the Italian mixed team that will also shoot for gold.

Pagni admitted that he was disappointed not to be in that competition but, regardless, making two out of three available gold medal matches at the second stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup is no mean feat.

And in the Italian team, no matter the qualification order, it’s the experienced 37-year-old who anchors because, under pressure, the Sultan of Smooth keeps his cool.

“Under these rules, individual or team, usually it’s one point winning the match,” Sergio said. In Italy’s quarterfinal clash in Medellin, it was Pagni’s last arrow – a 10 –that saw the team through.

“Fortunately, I’m used to shooting as the last one. Normally I need a 10 or nine to win. I would prefer it to be not normal. Needing an eight to win by one or two points is better – not to have the pressure on your shoulders – but, normally, it’s not like that.”

In all the team medals the Italian men have collected in the past couple of years, none have been gold. They’ll try to buck that trend against a USA trio with something to prove.

Sergio and States archer Reo Wilde will then clash again, in an individual final that pits two of the Hyundai Archery World Cup’s most winning archers head-to-head for enough circuit ranking points to all but secure an invitation to the final in Odense.