Archery, a press release from the Federation has announced the names of the archers who will take part in the next indoor European Championships in Samsun (Turkey) from 14 to 18 February. Present Nespoli, Rebagliati, Boari and Andreolli. Petrilli and Minjo included in the list of candidates for the World Archery Awards for the Paralympic category. Natalia Valeeva is in the running for a place in the hall of fame.
The indoor archery season is rapidly turning towards one of its most important appointments: the European championships which will be held in Samsun, Turkey, from 14th to 18th February next. An event that follows the stage of the World Series held last week in Nimes, France, and which saw Italy put three medals around its neck.
The veterans of the transalpine stage will all be present in Turkey. Among them, Tatiana Andreolli, athlete of the Fiamme Oro, who achieved an incredible first place in Nimes, beating with a perfect score (30-28; 30-30; 30-29; 30-29) the German Khatarina Bauer, number two of the world ranking. Andreolli will be accompanied by two other Olympians such as Chiara Rebagliati and Lucilla Boari (bronze in Tokyo), while the men’s recurve team can count on Mauro Nespoli (reigning Olympic runner-up), Federico Musolesi and Alessandro Paoli.
In the stage of Nimes a medal also came from the junior recurve bow, thanks to the performance of Roberta Di Francesco (Abruzzese archers), who defeated the Turkish Ozge Citak in the final. Together with the 2003 class, silver in the last campaign World Championships held in Yankton, there will also be Ginevra Landi, Italian champion in the category, and Chiara Campagno. Matteo Bilisari, Matteo Borsani and Emiliano Rampon rely on the masculine.
Space also for the compound and bare archery: in the first category, the athletes called up are Marco Bruno, third in the last 3D World Championships held in Terni, Michea Gordano, Jacopo Polidori, Sara Ret, Elisa Roner and Marcella Tonioli, the latter Italian champion indoors.
The bare archery team focuses heavily on the women’s sector, where Cinzia Noziglia, back from a 2022 full of international successes, is called to defend the European title conquered last year in Lasko (Slovenia). Together with her, Fabia Rovatti, European vice-champion in charge, and Laura Turello. The men’s team is made up of Valter Basteri, Bruno Bassetta, Ferruccio Berti, Cinzia Noziglia
In the junior compound category the presence of Lorenzo Gubbini stands out, fresh from the bronze conquered in Nimes. Together with him Fabrizio Aloisi and Rosario Sidoti, while among the girls there are Michelle Maria Bombarda, Martina Del Duca and Martina Serafini, the latter two bronze in the team event of the Wroclaw 2021 Youth European Championships. Serafini also conquered, the last year, an honorable sixth place in the youth European Championships in Lilleshall, England.
The duo formed by Rania Braccini and Davide Cabua from Lucca in the junior bare archery division closes.
World Archery Awards, Petrilli and Minjo candidates in the Paralympic archery. Natalia Valeeva running to enter the hall of fame
The start of the season could also consecrate three icons of the blue arc: Vincenza Petrilli, Elisabetta Minjo and Natalia Valeeva. World Archery has in fact announced the nominations for the World Archery Awards, the prizes reserved for the best archers of 2022, inserting the two Paralympic medalists, Petrilli won an individual silver in Tokyo, while Minjo boasts an individual silver in London 2012 and a bronze in the mixed team at Rio 2016, in the list of candidates to be able to boast of this important recognition.
Who, on the other hand, could earn imperishable glory in the elite of the world archery is Natalia Valeeva: the Moldovan archer, naturalized Italian, whose legend was born at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, is in the running for a place in the hall of fame among names that, in one way or another, have marked the history of archery, most of them women, such as Inger Frith, the first woman ever to assume the presidency of a sports federation (Federation Interationale de tir à l’ Arc) in 1961, Neroli Fairhall, the first Paralympic athlete to participate in an edition of the Olympics, in Los Angeles 1984 and Kim Soo-Nyung, the most decorated archer in the history of the Olympics thanks to six medals, four golds (three teams), one silver and one bronze (individual), won in three editions of the Games between 1988 and 2000.
Archery enthusiasts will be able to vote on the World Archery website for the World Archery Awards until midnight on February 28, while the election of the hall of fame is delegated to a jury of experts.
