Images courtesy of Joachim Gögel.
Rio 2016 Paralympian Jane Karla Gogel, 42, beat world record holder Stepanida Artakhinova, 144-139, to the compound women’s open gold medal at the first leg of the 2018 Para Archery European Circuit in Olbia, Italy – a para world ranking event – raising her to the top spot in the ranking list for the first time in her career.
“Another dream has come true. I always wanted to be the best in the world. I'm really happy and it's still difficult to believe that my name is on the top of the list,” said Jane.
Seeded second with 664/720 points after the 72-arrow 50-metre ranking round in Italy, the Brazilian archer won four elimination matches to victory.
The former Paralympic table tennis player, who switched to archery in 2014, won the Toronto 2015 Para Pan American Games and made Brazil’s able-bodied team in 2016, competing at the Mexico City 2017 Hyundai World Archery Championships.
“I'm really happy with this result but still have dreams to realise. I want to win a medal at the World Championships in 2019 and in Tokyo 2020; and of course I have also other goals like shooting 700 points in qualifications,” said Jane.
Host Italy led the medal table in Olbia with a total of 10, of which two were gold, five silver and three bronze; Russia came second with eight and Great Britain third with four.
Italy beat Russia for the mixed team W1 gold medal, and Stefano Travisani won the recurve men open event against Poland's Ireneusz Kapusta. Recurve women’s open first place went to Svetlana Barantseva of Russia.
Paralympians Jo Frith (women W1), David Drahoninsky (men W1) and Jonathon Milne (compound men open) were winners of the other individual categories.
The first leg of the Para Archery European Circuit 2018 took place on 2-9 June in Olbia, Italy.
