The closing of the 3D Archery World Championship organized in Umbria this week was a real triumph. After the world title of the men’s team won yesterday, gold, silver and two bronzes in the mixed team on Wednesday, Italy concludes the individual finals taking home 4 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes.
In a historical setting that will remain in the memory of all the participants, considering that the stage of the finals was the archaeological park of Carsulae, Italy was the absolute protagonist of the world championship, climbing on the first step of the medal table: in total there are 14 Italian podiums (6 golds, 3 silvers, 5 bronzes), while Austria chases second place with 9 medals (4 golds, 2 silvers, 3 bronzes), while France and Spain share the third place, both with 1 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze.
Cinzia Noziglia in the naked arch, Cecilia Santacroce and Giuliano Faletti in the longbow, Elisa Baldo in the compound resounded the Italian anthem four times today in the Roman amphitheater of Carsulae. To these golds are added the silver of Iuana Bassi in an all-blue final in the longbow, the silver of Sabrina Vannini in the instinctive, the bronzes of Nicola Kos in the instinctive, of Giuseppe Seimandi in the naked arch and of Marco Bruno in the compound.
LONGBOW – The first final of the day involved Giulia Barbaro who had been overtaken in the semifinals by teammate Iuana Bassi 29-26. The blue then played for the bronze against the Argentine Martina Noale and, at the end of a balanced match, the South American athlete who finished the match 21-18 won the victory. The difference was made by the third pitch, where Barbaro hits the 5th and Noale the 8th, while in all the other pitches the athletes were equal. Needless to say, great disappointment for the blue who boasts three world titles in his career in 2005, 2009 and 2017. The challenge for the world title is instead an all-Italian question: in addition to Iuana Bassi, who won over the Barbaro, she won the challenge for gold also Cecilia Santangelo, good at overcoming the Noale 40-31. After the first two shots, the challengers find themselves at 13-13, but Santangelo in the third and fourth pitch manages to outpace Bassi by closing the game at 31-23, the result of the partial 8-5 and 8-10 in favor of her. A result that is worth a gold and a silver for Italy and an emotion difficult to describe for Cecilia Santangelo who bathes her debut in the blue jersey with a world title that came against all odds.
Even in the men’s competition the gold remains in Italy and Giuliano Faletti plays the role of the protagonist who, after overcoming the American Butts 36-31 (who later won the bronze) in the semifinal, faces the French Guillame Quetel in the final. beats with the result of 28-26. The challenge saw parity after the first pitch (5-5), then Faletti took the lead by closing the second pitch 10-8, but the transalpine made up for it by winning the third set 8-5, but the blue did not tremble he wins the game with an 8-5 in his favor in the last target.
ARCO INSTINCTIVE – Sabrina Vannini concludes with the silver: the standard bearer of the Arcieri Città di Terni, the organizing company of the event, overtook the Hungarian Piroska Gyorgyne Kereszt (who then won the bronze) in the semifinal 38-31 in the match for the title the Austrian Claudia Weinberger won 26-23. For Vannini this is another important international laurel, considering that last year she had won the European bronze and in the previous world championship she had stopped in fourth place.
In the men’s test, Italy puts another medal on the board and does it with another rookie. Let’s talk about the bronze of Nicola Kos, also the standard bearer of the home club. The young blue athlete had lost the semifinal 40-38 with the British Jed Cullen, who then took the silver, passed in the final by the Austrian Klaus Grunsteidl 36-35. Kos returned to the course against the American Kenneth Rienas with the conviction of being able to do it and manages to get on the podium leading the game from the first pitch, going on to win 35-29.
ARCO NUDO – The third world title of the day comes thanks to the spearhead of the blue naked arch Cinzia Noziglia who, after winning the World Games, started with the weight of being the athlete to beat. The archer of the Fiamme Oro overtook the Austrian Susanne Steininger Borbath-Vanko 39-34 (who later won the bronze) in the semifinals, and then went to play the first step of the podium with another Austrian Rosemerie Leitner. The decisive match for Noziglia starts uphill, the opponent immediately takes 3 points ahead (11-8), but the Ligurian champion shortens the distance by winning the second set 10-8 and, after 10-10 to the third target, everything is decided on the last pitch: Noziglia hits 8, thinks that the opponent can do better, but the Austrian with a 5 allows the blue to overtake who thus goes on to win his second world title after the one he won in 2015, also in Terni.
On the other hand, in the men comes the bronze of another sacred monster of this division, the bearer of the Blue Flames Giuseppe Seimandi who, after the silver won in the last edition of the world championship, but competing in the compound division, is going to take an excellent bronze. Seimandi, who in his palmares boasts a world title with the naked bow won in 2007, had lost the semifinal against Canadian William Melnik 40-37 and went to compete for third place with the American Daniel Colloms 39-33, going to win all three partials, apart from the last one, when the bronze was already in the safe. The world title was won by the Frenchman David Jackson.
COMPOUND – The last finals of the day are those dedicated to the compound and also in this division Italy had come to compete for the podium with more than one athlete. The first medal fades and is that of Irene Franchini who, after being overtaken in the semifinals by the Swedish Ida Karlsson after the 40-40 playoff (5-10), returns to the field for the bronze against the outgoing world champion Ingrid Ronacher 34-30 . The disappointment of the athlete of the Blue Flames for not being able to repeat the bronze won in 2019 at Lac La Biche, is counterbalanced by the victory of the world title by Elisa Baldo. The Paduan archer first overcomes Ingrid Ronacher in the semifinal 40-40 (10 * -10) and then manages to do the same also in the final, the only one ended at the shoot-off: the two contenders arrive at the end of the four pitches on the 39-39 and in the decisive arrow, both hit 11, but that of the blue is a few millimeters closer to the center, just enough to make the hymn of Mameli resound for the sixth and last time in this world championship.
The day of glory for the Azzurri ends with the bronze conquered by Marco Bruno. The Piedmontese athlete was overtaken in the semifinal in the play-off by the Austrian Nico Wiener 40-40 (11 * -11) who then won the world title by beating the Hungarian Laszlo Szijarto. However, Bruno found the strength to react by winning 43-41 over the Austrian Klaus Bitterman.
