22 March 2010 - New European Indoor Champions Crowned in Croatia

New European Indoor Champions Crowned in Croatia Lausanne – 22 March 2010 The 12th European Indoor Championships took place from 15-21 March 2010 in Porec (Croatia). Italy was the best team overall ahead of Russia and Ukraine.                Photo: Lituanian Archery Federation Recurve Men In recurve men, Sebastian ROHRBERG (GER) won the gold for one single point: he beat Michele FRANGILLI 116-117 in the final. IVASHKO from Ukraine won the bronze over DE BACKER (BEL) 117-113.   FRANGILLI later declared that "I'm a little disappointed with the silver: in my career I have won so many titles, but the individual gold from the European Indoor Championships is still missing from my collection. I will do my best to win next year".   In the team competition the Italian trio of FRANGILLI, Marco GALIAZZO and Massimiliano MANDIA conquered the European title with a final victory over the Ukraine (IVASHKO, RUBAN, KHAVTURA). It is the fifth title for Italy after 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002. For bronze, France defeated Bulgaria 233-230.   Said Marco GALIAZZO after not medalling individually but capturing gold with his team: "It's impossible to win every time. (…) Fortunately we won the team gold. It's a great satisfaction knowing that we lost this medal two years ago in Torino. Massimiliano MANDIA, who is young and very promising, was a little nervous before the final. But he was able to relax and did a great job. I would like to congratulate him, it was not easy for him, in one of his first senior international competitions."   Recurve Women Italian Natalia VALEEVA defeated teammate Pia LIONETTI 115-114 in the semifinal and went on to win the gold against Coby HURKMANS (NED) 116-111. The young Russian ERDYNIYEVA took the bronze medal over LIONETTI with a victory 115-113.   Natalia VALEEVA (pictured left at the Indoor World Championships 2009 in Rzeszow), who had won the title in 1989 under the Soviet flag and in 1996 as a Moldovian, added another gold to the one she won for Italy in Ankara 2002. "Despite being 40 years old and the mother of 3 kids, I still managed to shoot and win (she laughs). I'm feeling well and I'm happy with my performance. Without the sacrifices from my husband, who took a day off in order to stay home with the kids, I would never have been able to compete. He made it possible for me to travel to Croatia and I would like to thank him."   In the team competition, the Ukraine – MYLCHENKO, KOVAL, DOROKHOVA – qualified for the final over Germany. In the other semifinal, Italy (LIONETTI, TONETTA, VALEEVA) defeated Georgia 234-227. The final was exciting with the competition still open until the very last arrow. The Ukrainian women won in the end, 229-228. The bronze medal went to Georgia.   Compound Men In compound, the defending champion Sergio PAGNI displayed his talent once again by winning the individual gold with a near perfect score of 119. Norway's Boe MORTEN was second with 118. In the bronze medal match, Peter ELZINGA (NED) and Pierre Julien DELOCHE (FRA) were tied 118-118 after 12 arrows. They both shot two 10s in the shoot-off. Finally ELZINGA was the best in the last arrow (10 to 9) to clinch the bronze medal!   As for the teams, Italy easily defeated the Netherlands in the semifinal 233-227, but lost the gold medal to France 230-235. Interestingly, Denmark won bronze over the Netherlands with a score that would have been worth gold: 236-234.   Compound Women The semifinals saw the elimination of the defending champion Laura LONGO (ITA) against Ivana BUDEN (CRO) 115-116. Laura then lost the bronze to Viktoria BALZHANOVA (UKR) 113-116. STANIECZEK (POL) was the best in the final, winning gold over BUDEN 111-109.   In the team competition, the medal matches were battles of neighbours! BUDEN led Croatia to gold in a hard-fought match (227-226) against Italy. Russia took the bronze over Finland in the bronze medal match, 229-224.   ·         Results   ·         Photos   ·         Photo gallery from the Lituanian team   FITARCO / FITA Communication