Nespoli qualifies top in Lausanne with second-best career result

Italy’s European Games Champion Mauro Nespoli took top seed after recurve men’s qualification at the second stage of the 2021 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is the 33-year-old’s second-best score in an impressive international career to date and only two points off his personal record.

“I’m quite happy about the qualification. I shot one of my best results. It’s very important this year. But the competition hasn’t finished yet,” he said.

The world number three might have beaten his best but for the last two ends. Clear and ahead of the average he needed, he shot six-arrow ends of 55 and 56 points to finish, costing him a chance to break 690 and hit a new lifetime score.

“I lost my focus in the last two ends and shot a bad score. I need to concentrate again and restart before the matches,” Nespoli admitted.

“I talked about that with my coach. Maybe I checked at the scorecard what result I could do. And this is not the best way to shoot the last two ends. Next time I will be more focused.”

It’s nice to hear that even experienced archers like Mauro get nervous in these situations.

Reigning Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion Brady Ellison came in second with 686 points, considerably down on his top score from Guatemala but still solid, and Sjef Van den Berg was third on 683. Erdem Tsydypov, Mete Gazoz, Florian Unruh, Alessandro Paoli and Nicholas D’Amour completed the top eight seeds and the list that will receive byes into the third round.

D’Amour was pushing Nespoli for the lead at the halfway point but collapsed over the back 36, needing to beat Steve Wijler in a shoot-off to retain his bye after the pair tied on 672.

The conditions during Tuesday morning’s qualification were considerably better, with sun shining through the clouds, than the inconvenience of rain, wind and mud that came with practice on Monday. Mauro found it much more comfortable.

“We expected that it will be raining the whole week, but it’s perfect for making good scores,” said Nespoli.

Having skipped the season opener in Guatemala, the reigning European Games Champion has his sights firmly set on a successful return. He hasn’t competed at this level since finishing runner-up to Ellison at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Moscow in 2019.

“I’m looking for a gold medal! Both in the team and mixed team, too,” he said and then, almost inevitably, the subject swivelled towards the final stages of Olympic qualification. “We are looking forward to the quota tournament, and we want to go to Tokyo with the whole team.”

Italy has a chance to upgrade the single quota Mauro won for his fourth place at the last world championships to a full team invitation next month in Paris. The squad will be happy there if they have the same start as here – the Italian recurve men seeded top as a team with 2028 points, ahead of the Netherlands on 2016 and Spain with 2000.

Competition continues with eliminations for all recurve men tomorrow in Lausanne.

Top 8 seeds: Recurve men

1. Mauro Nespoli, Italy – 689
2. Brady Ellison, USA – 686
3. Sjef Van Den Berg, Netherlands – 683
4. Erdem Tsydypov, Russia – 679
5. Mete Gazoz, Turkey – 678
6. Florian Unruh, Germany – 675
7. Alessandro Paoli, Italy – 675
8. Nicholas D'Amour, US Virgin Islands – 672