Paralympic champ Paterson Pine top as Nove Mesto concludes

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Champion Phoebe Paterson Pine won one of the eight individual golds on offer today as the 2022 Nove Mesto World Ranking and European Cup para archery event completed in Czech Republic.

British compounder Pine beat Jane Karla Gogel 145-139 in the final between the first and second seeds.

The Brazilian had pipped Pine to top qualifying earlier on Tuesday when she equalled the para world record (72-arrow, 50-metre) with a 695, one ahead of Pine.

“I feel incredibly proud to have won gold, this is only my second ever individual gold internationally,” said Pine, who also won the compound women’s doubles and took bronze in the compound mixed.

“I’ve been working really hard with my coach Andrea Gales to up my individual game and the hard work is paying off.”

“Going against someone like Jane is always tough, she’s an incredibly good archer and we’ve shot against one another a few times now, she’s a great competitor and overall lovely person so it’s always a pleasure.”

As Paralympic Champion, Pine was offered a spot for the World Games this week, but instead chose to focus on the Czech Republic event ahead of the European Championships in August and qualifying for the European Para Archery Cup finals on home soil in Nottingham in September.

This is all part of a long-term plan to improve her results as an individual and it is clearly paying off.

“In the past, I’ve been a name to be seen on the team side but now I want to make a mark more individually, especially with the confidence I have now since winning in Tokyo," said the 24-year-old.

“2022 so far has been a good year for me,” she added. “Internationally I’ve managed to medal at the world championships in Dubai, winning individual bronze and now I’ve won three medals here in the Czech Republic.”

“I’m now working towards the European champs in a few weeks in Rome and I’m really hoping to medal there as well.”

“I’ve also got a handful of events in England and I’m ranked quite well on our national tour right now. I’m also hoping to be competing in the finals for that later this year which are running alongside the European para archery finals, with both taking place in Nottingham.”

Fellow Paralympic Champion and home favourite David Drahoninsky defeated Hungary’s Tamas Gaspar (140-134) to win the men’s W1 gold. It was his third of the event after securing both W1 team events (men’s and mixed). Italy’s Asia Pellizzari won the women’s W1 title thanks to a 133-116 victory over Tereza Brandtlova.

Other gold medallists today saw triple para world champion, Tokyo 2020 silver medallist and world number one Vincenza Petrilli see off Japan’s Chika Shigesada 6-0 in the recurve women’s final. That result ensured another triple for the Italian, who also won the women’s team and mixed team events in Nove Mesto.

Due to covid, Shigesada’s teammate, Tomohiro Ueyama, was unable to start his final against Thailand’s Hanreuchai Netsiri, who was awarded gold.

Belgium’s Piotr van Montagu defeated Italy’s Matteo Bonacina 145-141 for compound men’s gold while Ruben Vanhollebeke and Daniele Piran won their respective visually impaired competitions.

Earlier in the day, individual bronze medals were awarded while all team events concluded on Friday.

A full list of results can be found on the Nove Mesto 2022 event page on the World Archery website.

Individual champions - Nove Mesto 2022

• Recurve men: Hanreuchai Netsiri, Thailand
• Recurve women: Vincenza Petrilli, Italy
• Compound men: Piotr van Montagu, Belgium
• Compound women: Phoebe Paterson Pine, Great Britain
• Men W1: David Drahoninsky, Czech Republic
• Women W1: Asia Pellizzari, Italy
• Visually Impaired 1: Ruben Vanhollebeke, Belgium
• Visually Impaired 2/3: Daniele Piran, Italy

Team champions - Nove Mesto 2022

• Recurve men team:  Italy (Stefano Travisani, Giuseppe Verzini)
• Recurve women team:  Italy (Veronica Floreno, Vincenza Petrilli)
• Recurve mixed team:  Italy (Vincenza Petrilli, Stefano Travisani)
• Compound men team:  Italy (Matteo Bonacina, Giampaolo Cancelli)
• Compound women team:  Great Britain (Phoebe Paterson Pine, Jessica Stretton)
• Compound mixed team:  France (Julie Rigault Chupin, Maxime Guerin)
• Men W1 team:  Czech Republic (Karel Davidek, David Drahoninsky)
• Mixed W1 team:  Czech Republic (Tereza Brandtlova, David Drahoninsky)

Medal table: Nove Mesto 2022

1.  Italy: 13 (7 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze)
2.  Czech Republic: 4 (3 gold, 1 silver)
3.  Great Britain: 7 (2 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze)
4.  Belgium: 2 (2 gold)
5.  Thailand: 3 (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)

Athletes representing 17 countries collected 45 medals across 16 events in Nove Mesto.