One week before the start of the championship, the regional president of Italian Archery Federation (FITArco) Lorenzo Bortolamasi declares himself extremely satisfied with the work carried out in preparation for the event, in total collaboration and support between the Castellarano company and the regional committee.
The field shooting championship will begin on July 21st, an outdoor sporting event that will involve the sports club Sportinsieme and the municipality of Castellarano, involving the entire neighboring area, until Sunday 24 July. The regional president of FITArco explains: “This year the federation wanted the arrangement of four competition fields, each with 24 pitches, for a total of 96 spaces hosting as many archer patrols, each made up of four athletes.” A good number of athletes, around 450, estimates to which we must add staff, companions and enthusiasts: “Assuming that for every athlete in the race there is a companion, who is a technician, a relative, or even simply an enthusiast, one can count around 900 presences of people involved in the organization or insiders. From an audience point of view I certainly expect a few hundred people in the final stages on the pitch around the castle.”
A notable audience over the course of the three days, but which Bortolamasi reveals is nothing new: “We can reach Castellarano around 1500 presences given the logistics of the place. We have done other championships in other structures that are more difficult to access and we have seen that in any case the races were extremely followed from home on the federation’s YouTube channel. In this area, field shooting is very popular, the shooting companies are nearby, the hotel accommodation and the ceramic district are further important factors for having even more numerous presences than in the past”.
Passion for the discipline is another distinctive trait of the host area: “There’s always a lot of participation, both as athletes involved in the competitions and as the public and enthusiasts. There are many companies of archers, and the birth of this competition stems from the fact that some types of bow could not have competitions during the summer.” The type of field shooting competition was inaugurated precisely to give these archers the possibility of having continuity even during the summer: “many archers who during the winter season dedicate themselves to other types of bow, during the summer try to develop the activity on field shooting because it is dynamic and allows you to stay outdoors throughout the day. Then there’s the difficulty of shooting, that is, not knowing the distance to the targets, having to set parameters and hypothesize, the doubt component that makes everything very special and interesting and above all increasingly popular”.
The difference is immediately clear even for those unfamiliar with field shooting: “Unlike the competitions of the Olympics or on television, one can see that the archers position themselves on the pitch to shoot, open the bow, evaluate, think again, they modify the sight, they make different evaluations on the string to understand at what distance they can shoot the arrow. Another difference is the ability to immediately understand during the clashes of the finals who passes the round, who wins and loses. It’s beautiful, dynamic. In the finals that will be played at the Castle, there will be scorers who will update the score from time to time, so the public will be even more involved in cheering”.
There are many archers in Emilia-Romagna, and the categories are divided by age and by type of bow. The largest groups are above all the senior (over 20) and master (over 50) classes, which the championship will see involved in the competition.
Preparations are now completed, the sports club and the city are ready to welcome athletes and fans and officially kick off the Castellarano championship.
More information and program at: https://www.asdsportinsieme.it/campionati-italiani-h-and-f
(edited by Laura Saracino)
