Water on waterfalls: Terni weather lessons

If it was not enough all the water of the beautiful waterfalls in Terni, the afternoon of eliminations day was marred by a violent storm that forced a 30-minute delay in competition. The World Archery 3D Championships continued nonetheless, with the top 16 individual archers and top eight teams, in each category, cut to just four.

“One of the most important thing in archery is to practise in the rain,” said Tom Hauberg Rask Nielsen, a barebow men’s athlete from Denmark. “You also need to think a lot about the mental aspects of the sport. Everybody can shoot, but how you manage the pressure… this is the key to success.”

As defending champion in the men’s team competition, Jacob Steffensen said his secret was never to be satisfied.

“Even an 11,” the highest score on a 3D target, “can be improved,” he said. “Train a lot to reach more, that’s my goal.”

In 3D competition, there’s more than just the archer and the target, though.

“There is two different things to may attention to: Where the best position for shooting is in the ground, and properly evaluating the distance to the pegs.”

All past men’s team world 3D medallists made the semifinals: Denmark, Hungary and Spain. The same, too, was true for the women. Italy, France and Sweden all made the top four.

Defending barebow men’s world champ David Garcia Fernandez went out, but Italian Giuseppe Seimandi – who had silver at Sassari 2013 – made the semis. Giulia Barbaro, also from Italy and also silver medallist two years prior, made the longbow women’s finals, along with Spain’s European 3D Champion, Encarna Garrido Lazaro.