Impression of the day: 

The finals today were exhilarating with, as we mentioned in yesterday's report, some unexpected contestants. The problem with us is we would like to see every archer in this final to win. We were impressed by Sebastian Rohrberg and his scores in the qualification rounds with a borrowed bow, and very much would liked him to put the icing on the cake during the finals. On the other hand we enjoyed seeing Björn Jansson excel above expectation in the Recurve final and getting the gold in this division. We were a bit sad seeing Mathias Larsson, an archer we admire for his dedication, style and performance, loosing his match against Pasi Ahjokivi from Finland. On the other hand we enjoyed watching an uninhibited Pasi to reach the finals, giving Erik Jonsson serious competition competing for the gold, Pasi enjoying every second of it. We saw a world record from Giuseppe Seimandi with 677 points over the first two days of this tournament and thought it would only be justice for him to take the gold plaque in Bjelovar. And yet we smiled when Erik Jonsson muttered after losing the team finals from Italy he would be going to kick some butt the next day during the individual finals and kept his word. And in the compound division we were quite surprised and happy to see two Danes on the top of the podium. Exactly how big is Denmark in field archery? And if it happens to be someone from Denmark to get the gold, why not Tom Henriksen indeed? It was about time again for him, I would think. And who could forget the warm smile from Amalia Stucchi towards the winner Ingrid Olofsson in the Compound Women final? Only seconds after losing that very same final from her… Or the case where Antonio Bianghini, with a huge smile on his face, created a passageway in the pile of English archers for Jessica Tomasi so she could reach Amy Oliver to congratulate her with her victory over herself during the Recurve woman final. If there was a medal to be awarded for the best sportsmanship it should this year be awarded to the Italians. After the medal ceremony, where we heard the Swedish anthem eight times since the Swedes got a staggering eight gold medals this year, the Swedes were cuddled up around a tree. The complete Italian team turned around towards them and started applauding this achievement. That gesture was soon to be followed by archers from other nations. I understand the Italian national target team is known to behave in a similar way, but it was the first time I experienced such an open, friendly and conversational Italian attitude in field archery. Our hats off to the Italian team captain Fabio Cinquinni who surely had an influence there to create this atmosphere.