Italy’s Sara Noceti and brother Alessio Noceti both collected junior gold medals in junior competitions at the 2016 World Archery Field Championships, held just outside of Dublin in Bray, Ireland.
Sara and Sweden’s Malin Medbo clashed for the first individual gold medal match of the event.
Malin and Sara were the first and second seed, respectively, after the unmarked and marked qualification days held at the beautifully-picturesque Killruddery House and Gardens.
On her way to the finals, Noceti beat Great Britain’s Sophie Benton by five points, 45-40, and then upset Medbo in the finals by four, 43-39.
“I couldn’t believe I could win both golds here at the World Field Championships, I’m really excited it happened,” said Sara, who was part of the Italian junior women’s team that also took gold.
“There’s a lot of hard work behind these medals – so winning, it’s really the pay-off I wanted.”
The Italian medal haul continued first with Eric Esposito, who won the barebow junior men’s bronze, and, then, with Sara’s brother Alessio, who beat the USA’s Mark Schlaudraff by a huge 17 points to collect gold in the category.
Zagreb 2014 champion Alessio, whose bow got lost on the way to Dublin, had to shoot the unmarked and marked qualifications day with a teammate’s spare bow. He coped well: first seed after the two qualification days with 669 points (58 more than his nearest competitor), he was second seed arriving in the finals after the two elimination rounds.
“This medal means a lot because it’s my last year as a junior and because, of course, I defended the title,” said 20-year-old Alessio.
“I thought it was going to be a bad week with my bow being lost around the world and me having to shoot with one of my teammate’s spare bows, but it was totally the opposite and it arrived on Thursday, just on time for the weekend.”
“It was also nice to see my sister becoming world field champion too!”
The recurve junior women gold match, between Chiara Rebagliati and Great Britain Bryony Pitman, was a replay from the 2015 European Field Championships, where Bryony won.
In Dublin, Chiari reversed the result, taking gold by two points.
“There was a lot of tension and when I saw that Bryony shot three points with her last arrow, I knew I had to shoot more than that. It was a four! It was a big relief to see that I won,” said Chiara.
The fifth medal for Italy was the recurve junior man Yuri Belli’s silver.
The 2016 World Archery Field Championships run 27 September to 2 October in Dublin, Ireland.
