It will be the competition of the first times, in Lasko the Indoor European Championships will see naked archery on the shooting line for the first time, the Azzurri will present themselves with the new Errea designer shirt and it will also be the debut match of the new Technical Manager of the Olympic National Team Giorgio Botto, a role he will continue to cover also for the National Campaign and 3D. Italy challenges archery Europe in the key continental event of the indoor season and already today is starting to become familiar with the shooting line with practice shooting sessions.
NUMBERS AND PROGRAM – Tomorrow the real competition will start, while on Friday and Saturday the first international trip of the season will end with the assignment of the European titles.
In total, 30 nations will be represented with over 300 archers competing: 147 in the Olympic, 108 in the compound and 44 in the bare bow. The Italian national team will present itself with 32 athletes between senior and junior and will officially begin its adventure tomorrow, Tuesday 15 February, with the 60 ranking round arrows of all the divisions in the competition, which will determine the scoreboard of the individual and team head-to-head matches. Wednesday, the first day of qualifying until the round of 16, then it will continue on Thursday with the individual challenges that will decide the finalists and the team matches, also in this case up to the semifinals. Friday 18th day entirely dedicated to the team finals, while on Saturday 19th the event will end with the matches that will assign the continental individual titles.
THE BLUES – The Tokyo 2020 medalists Mauro Nespoli (Aeronautica Militare) and Lucilla Boari (Fiamme Oro), together with Tatiana Andreoli (Fiamme Oro), the airmen Vanessa Landi and Federico Musolesi with Alessandro Paoli ( Iuvenilia Archers). There will also be six juniors on the firing line: Matteo Balsamo (Artemide Archers), Federico Novati (La Sorgente Archers), Francesco Gregori (Arco Club Riccione), Roberta Di Francesco (Abruzzesi Archers), Ginevra Landi (Maremmana G. From the Black Bands) and Chiara Compagno (Sagittarius Archers from Veneto).
The senior compounds see the blue debut of Carlo Bernardini (Arco Sport Roma), who will share the shooting line with Marco Bruno (Arcieri Iuvenilia), Viviano Mior (Kosmos Rovereto), Marcella Tonioli (Compagnia Ilcinese Arcieri Montalcino), Irene Franchini (Blue Flames) and Elisa Roner (Kosmos Rovereto). Also in this division Italy brought six players to the competition: Antonio Brunello (Kosmos Rovereto), Andrea Marchetti (Rotaio Archers), Leonardo Covre (Decumanus Maximus Archers), Andrea Nicole Moccia (Torresin Archers), Elisa Bazzichetto (Archers del Torresin) and Martina Serafini (Arco Club Tolmezzo).
For the division that is making its European debut, the naked bow, the spearhead of the National team will be competing, the highly decorated athlete of the Fiamme Oro Cinzia Noziglia, applauded on TV for having “played” in the Italia’s Got Talent program. Alongside her there will be Laura Turello (Compagnia Arcieri Udine), Fabia Rovatti (ASD Ki Oshi), Valter Basteri (Compagnia Frecce Apuane), Simone Barbieri (Malin Archery Team) and Daniele Bellotti (Arcieri Fivizzano). In this case there will be two juniors competing: Davide Morra (Alpignano Archers) and Eleonora Meloni (Uras Archers).
THE TECHNICAL STAFF – Following the large group of Italian archers, there will be staff blue, with the Federal Councilor Elena Forte as Head of Delegation, the Technical Director Giorgio Botto, assisted by the Olympic Youth Director, Ilario Di Buò, by the Senior and Junior Compound Director, Flavio Valesella, by the coaches of the recurvo Matteo Bisiani and Amedeo Tonelli, by the youth Giovanni Falzoni and Guendalina Sartori (juvenile bent), Stefano Mazzi (youth compound) and by the psychologist Manolo Cattari.
Naturally, a test in line with previous editions is expected from Italy. In the last indoor European championship held in Samsun (Tur) in 2019, Italy finished in third place in the medal table, winning 3 golds, 4 silvers and 1 bronze. On this occasion, a possible medal obtained with the barebow division (barebow in the international term) would enter history, considering that European titles have never been awarded for this bow in this event.
14/02/2022
