Archery, Azzurri in Paris: team passes for the Olympics are up for grabs

The decisive moment has come for Italy and for the many national teams that aspire to arrive at the Tokyo Olympic Games with the whole group. Today the Azzurri leave for Paris where, at the Charléty stadium, from 18 to 21 June, the last Olympic Qualification match will be held, offering 3 passes for the men’s teams and 3 for the women’s teams. To date, the only countries that are certain to go to Japan with the full trio are China, South Korea, Taipei and Great Britain. Italy will try to be part of this small group and improve the two individual passes obtained in 2019 which would allow them to compete in Tokyo also in the mixed team test.

The athletes

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The staff, made up of the Technical Coordinator Sante Spigarelli, coaches Matteo Bisiani and Natalia Valeeva, will accompany the Azzurri in charge of carrying out the feat. The same interpreters of the team test of the last stage of the World Cup in Lausanne will take the field: Mauro Nespoli (Aeronautica Militare), Alessandro Paoli (Arcieri Iuvenilia) and Federico Musolesi (Castenaso Archery Team) who obtained the bronze in Switzerland, together with the gold medal winners: Lucilla Boari (Fiamme Oro), Tatiana Andreoli (Fiamme Oro) and Chiara Rebagliati (Arcieri Torrevecchia). The reserves are the airmen Marco Galiazzo and Elena Tonetta, who will join the group on 20 June and will be part of the titular athletes in the third stage of the World Cup which will also be held in Paris: the start is scheduled for 22 June with the 72 arrows of qualification and will end on Sunday 27 June with the finals of the recurvo.

The program of the qualifying tournament

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On Friday 18 June the 153 male archers in the morning and 105 female athletes in the afternoon will be able to probe the competition field with the official practice shooting. Saturday 19 June is a day dedicated to the men’s team competition. In the morning all the participants will take to the field for the 72 ranking round arrows that will make up the scoreboard of the head-to-head matches. The first 8 in the ranking go directly to the round of 16, the other 16 compete in the 1/12 finals. All the others stand by and watch. To get the qualification you need to get to the finals and get on the podium.The program will be repeated on Sunday 20 June with the women’s team qualification race. On Monday 21 June there will be the individual qualification tournament, in which Italy will not take part, having already obtained a male pass and a female pass. The number of athletes who can qualify will be known after the team competitions: if, for example, Italy obtained passes for the trio, it would free up 2 individual places.

The male qualification

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Leading the men’s trio will be the Olympian from Voghera Mauro Nespoli, born in ’87, team silver in Beijing 2008, team gold in London 2012, starter in Rio 2016 where he stopped in the individual quarter-finals. Together with him, the two most promising young people on the national archery scene are Alessandro Paoli from Turin, born in 1999 and Federico Musolesi from Bologna, born in 1998, who grew up in the Federal School of Cantalupache. Both, thanks to the excellent scores achieved in the last two years, have earned the call-up to bring Italy to the tenth consecutive team qualification for the Games: from Seoul ’88 to Rio 2016, the Italian trio have always been present. Men’s Italy is in 10th place in the world ranking, has excellent potential, but knows that it will not be easy to get on the podium as there will be 39 nations in the race and, among these, top-level teams. This is the complete list: Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico , Mongolia, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, United States of America, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela.

The women’s qualification

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The blue who will try to get tickets for the Olympic Games will be the same athletes who won gold in the last round of the World Cup in Lausanne beating Mexico in the final: a result that brought Italy to 2nd place. in the world ranking behind South Korea. It is a trio that, although young, has gained a fair amount of international experience starting from Lucilla Boari, Mantuan from Rivalta sul Mincio, born in ’97, the only one to have been a starter at the Games of Rio. Instead, Tatiana Andreoli, born in ’99, from San Giorio di Susa (To) and Chiara Rebagliati from Savona, born in ’97, are aiming for their Olympic debut. In women, Italy qualified the team for the first time in Atlanta ’96 and then has always been present with the trio, with the exception of Athens 2004, where only Natalia Valeeva, current coach of the blues, qualified. Also for them on this occasion there will be major challengers, 28 in total: Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Indonesia, India, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United States of America, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uzbekistan.

The world Cup

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At the end of the Olympic Qualification Tournament, the other Azzurri will arrive in Paris and, again at the Charléty stadium, will take part in the third stage of the World Cup. As mentioned, Marco Galiazzo and Elena Tonetta will join together with the archers. of the compound division: Sergio Pagni (Archers City of Pescia), Federico Pagnoni (Archers Montalcino), Marco Bruno (Archers Iuvenilia), Marcella Tonioli (Archers Montalcino), Elisa Roner (Kosmos Rovereto) and Paola Natale (Archers Cormons), followed by coach of the compound Flavio Valesella, by the coach of the Olympic team Amedeo Tonelli and by the physiotherapist Andrea Rossi. The Paris competition will be the last chance to qualify for the final of the circuit, as well as being the last international appointment before the departure for the Tokyo Olympic Games. Upon returning from Japan, the Azzurri will be engaged from 19 to 26 September in Yankton, in the USA, for the World Championships and, in the same place, some of them aim to stay for the World Cup final which will be played in Yankton on 29 and September 30th.