Poland’s Lesniak to Face Unruh for Women’s World Title

At the World Archery Indoor Championships in Ankara, Natalia Lesniak found herself in a semifinal with Italian archer Claudia Mandia. The Polish archer was well aware that her Italian opponent had qualified higher. Claudia had seeded third, Natalia 10th.

“She’s a good archer, but I managed to succeed,” said Natalia.

The semifinal match started tight. Both scored 28 with their first three arrows, then a pair of 30s followed. In the fourth set, Natalia managed to gain the lead when Claudia put a pair of arrows into the nine. At 5-3, all Natalia needed was a split set to take the match and gain her first world championship title berth.

A closing 29 for Natalia matched what Claudia had to offer – and she won the match, six set points to four.

“The first set was just after a break, so my nerves were playing a slightly stronger role,” explained Natalia. “Then I shot two 30s, which helped me to regain some motivation.”

“Claudia shoots in quite an unusual way,” she continued. Her Italian opponent waits until there is 30 seconds left on the timing clock before drawing back her first arrow. “In the end, I simply needed to shoot faster and with more confidence.”

Lesniak said she was even happier to have beaten her personal best for the ranking round: “At an event like this, beating your best is something truly special.”

Natalia scored 578 out of a possible 600 points over the 60-arrow qualification round.

She struggled in her first match, needing a shoot-off to beat Belarus’ Karyna Dziominskaya, who seeded 13 points lower. Both archers shot a 10, but Lesniak’s was closer to the middle.

Her second match was smoother, then a quarterfinal clash with second-ranked Tomomi Sugimoto also needed a tiebreaker, which Lesnkiak won with another 10. Sugimoto was Natalia’s second Japanese opponent in a row. She had beaten Rina Sugibayashi 7-3 in the second round.

After the win over Claudia, all that remains for the 2014 European silver medallist is a gold medal match against top seed Lisa Unruh.

“I am very satisfied that I have a medal from the World Championships, because that’s now for sure,” she said. Guaranteed silver, Lesniak can upgrade to gold. “It will be the biggest achievement in my career indoors.”

Despite the success, Natalia admitted the entire Polish team was more concentrated on working towards full team qualification to the Olympic Games, a sentiment echoed by her teammate Karina Lipiarska-Palka, which will be decided at the third stage of the year’s Archery World Cup in Antalya.

“I hope when we return to Turkey in June, that competition will be as successful for us as this event,” she said.

Poland currently has one women’s quota place for Rio 2016, won by Karina Lipiarska-Palka in the secondary tournament at the World Archery Championships in Copenhagen.