Arco, the men’s national team stops in the quarterfinals: qualification for the Games fades

Italy’s day began under good auspices but did not end in the same way. For some parts of the ranking round, in fact, Mauro Nespoli, Alessandro Paoli and Federico Musolesi also maintained the first place. At the end of the 216 arrows that established the scoreboard of the direct matches they then classified with an excellent 3rd place (2023 points), behind the USA, first with 2031 and from Germany, second with 2028. As planned, the first 8 they earned direct access to the round of 16, while the other 16 had to compete in the 12th final. The board of Italy proposed the match between Turkey and Croatia. The winner would have faced the Azzurri and it was Croatia, somewhat surprisingly, who had the better of the Turks 5-3.

Winning Azzurri in the second round

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Italy’s round of 16 match saw the Azzurri face the Croatian trio made up of Cerni, Mihalic and Remar with great decision: the match ended with a clear 6-0. Nespoli, Paoli and Musolesi maintained a very high average points, winning with the following partial: 56-53, 60-54 and 57-55. The Italian trio enters the quarterfinals by achieving the highest average of all the teams competing in the round of 16. The opponent is Indonesia (Salsabilla, Pangestu, Prastyadi) which in the meantime beat Bangladesh 6-0 (56-54, 56-55, 56-54). The other quarter-final matches are Malaysia-Ukraine, France-Mexico, USA-Spain.

Fatal for Italy the quarterfinals

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However, the challenge of the quarter-finals is fatal for Italy. Mauro Nespoli, Alessandro Paoli and Federico Musolesi were beaten by Indonesia 5-1: failure to access the semifinals is equivalent to exclusion from the Olympic qualification, the first for the men’s team in the history of Italy since the competition has existed in teams. The first partial ends 58-55 in favor of the opponents. In the second set the blues do not exploit the 6 to the third arrow of Indonesia which closes the first part of the second set with 25 points: Italy with the next three arrows remains out of the yellow and closes at 49-52 which is worth 0- 4. In the third fraction of the game the Italian trio tries to raise the average points: they need to win the set to stay in the game but the efforts of the blues are not enough to shorten the distance. The volley ends 54-54 and Indonesia earns the point that is worth 5-1 and access to the semifinal.

The words of Mauro Nespoli

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“First of all I believe that the one who took to the field was the right team, made up of a more experienced athlete like myself and two younger archers who have earned the right to play this qualification in Paris on the field – says the captain of the blue trio. Mauro Nespoli – Unfortunately in the quarter-finals we paid for the emotion and certainly this weighed on us. We were not able to find ourselves as we did very well in qualifying after the accident of Alessandro Paoli who had an accident banging his head , but who then reacted very well. We had passed the round of 16 with very high scores but in a completely different scenario than the quarter-finals, exactly as it happened when we won the bronze in the World Cup in Lausanne. For the quarter-finals completely different environment. , we arrived on the field of the finals with alternating shooting, between cameras, photographers and speakers: obviously we have undergone this change ito. At the beginning of the match against Indonesia there was also a problem with the referee and that also contributed to not starting on the right foot. Overall there were the conditions to distract us and we fell in full. I am very sorry, because we are a close-knit team and it is useless to look now at who has scored more or less points, because the result is to be shared by all three. I think it is also useless to go and review the order of shooting which in my opinion was the right one. The reality is that each of us has been lost along the way, we have not been able to code the situation and react as we should and could to put the match back on its feet and attempt a comeback. From this disappointment we have to start again to look ahead, aware that we did our best to honor the blue jersey, but that the efforts made are not always rewarded “.

The words of the president Mario Scarzella

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“Thanks to the guys who tried until the end. Unfortunately we know that in sport, even when there is such an important result as the Olympic qualification at stake, you can win or lose. The fundamental thing is that this defeat will have to come from the victories of the future. Our boys came out against a strong Indonesia, as evidenced by their qualification and reaching the final with the USA. Our regret is not having repeated the performance of the round of 16 which was the best of all the teams in the race. Let’s hope that the girls tomorrow will give us the joy we missed today. I’m very sorry because I was so convinced that the boys would have made it. A real shame. ”

Qualified teams

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The disappointment of Italy is of course not much alleviated by the fact that Indonesia, together with the United States of America, has obtained the Olympic qualification. In fact, the Indonesian trio beat Ukraine in the semifinals with a clear 6-0, just like the USA, who beat the French 6-0. We had to wait over 80 minutes before knowing the third qualifier, due to a storm that hit the Charléty stadium in Paris which made it necessary to suspend the match. In the end, the match between Ukraine and France was brought home by the winning hosts in the final 6-0. For the record, the Indonesia-USA final ended in favor of the stars and stripes team that won the match 5-3.

Tomorrow the blue will be on the field

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Tomorrow the three athletes of Italy will try to soothe the disappointment for the Azzurri’s failure to qualify: Chiara Rebagliati, Lucilla Boari and Tatiana Andreoli have the task of qualifying at least the women’s national team in order to arrive in Tokyo with 4 effective, given that the individual pass remains in the safe. The tournament will be played exactly like the men’s one: 72 ranking round arrows and then the head-to-head scoreboard that brings the top eight directly to the second round. To get tickets for Japan you will need to get on the podium.