Salt Lake victory qualifies Italy’s Nespoli for Samsun

Italy’s Mauro Nespoli became the third recurve man qualified for the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final after he beat Steve Wijler of the Netherlands, 6-2, in the final at stage three of the international tour.

“I’m very excited because I’m working a lot to increase my results in individual competitions and this is the first medal at the World Cup and I’m very happy,” said Nespoli, the 12th seed at the event. 

“I didn’t shoot very well during the qualification round but I was very focused in this match. I’m happy.”

Nespoli opened the gold medal match with a perfect 30 to take a quick lead, then he and Wijler split the next two sets with 27 and then 28 points each.

Wijler opened the fourth set with an eight and Nespoli capitalised, shooting 29 out of a possible 30 points to win the series by two and the match, 6-2.

It is the Italian 30 year old’s first individual win on the international tour and pushes him up to fourth in the world rankings.

“I hope [in Samsun] I can do better than in Paris because it wasn’t a good competition,” said Mauro, referring to his eighth-place finish at his only other appearance at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in 2013. 

“I’m working for this and now I will restart my training for the next competitions. We have the European Championships this year and then the Finals, so I’m looking for a medal in these competitions.”

Steve Wijler, although he was reluctant to let people know of the situation so that it wasn’t interpreted as an excuse, shot the finals and his early eliminations in Salt Lake with a fracture in his drawing hand. Considering the injury, the silver medal was impressive.

France’s Thomas Chirault secured the recurve men’s bronze medal, beating Olympic team bronze medallist Ryan Tyack from Australia, 6-2.

The third stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup takes place in Salt Lake City, USA on 18-24 June.