Stefano Travisani v Guillaume Toucoullet – recurve men open gold | Nove Mesto 2023 Para European Cup

as you can hear time for the last of the action here in Novi Mesto at the first stage of the European Grand Prix from para archery of men's open category is about to get underway let's go down to meet the contenders for the gold medal [Applause] s [Music] [Applause] thank you last of the gold medal matches here at Levy Master the recurve men's open is a contest between Stefano travisani from Italy and yeah tukalay from France two different forms of archery yeah even though it's the recurve you've got conventional finger release opposed to a mouth release so the Frenchman has a mouth tap that's attached to the string so travisani a conventional release as John says yeah having things underway with a 10 . you can lay using a mouse release tell us how does that work obviously it's a replacement to the to the to the back arm but uh how do you release the arrow with your mouth no basically you just open your jaw and and arches around you get covered in saliva hahaha [Laughter] get a good look at that [Applause] yeah it'll be a it's a cord attached to his string that he holds in his mouth hey we're dropping low into the eight so uh has opened the door here for a tide set the particularly needs a 10 from his teeth quite enough but uh confidence boosting two nines from uh tukalay to end that set but it is uh travisani leading by two set points to nil look in all seriousness I'm genuinely not joking here I mean does that not put an awful lot of pressure on your teeth absolutely he's drawing about 44 pounds on his teeth you know so he he goes to the dentist quite alone yeah he does yeah you know he he's it's the only way he's got to look after his his teeth you know they're so important to him yeah he's bought by shooting with his jaw all he needs to do is just open his jaw ever so slightly so there's less moving Parts if you like so it's he's very accurate once he gets into the into the swing of it you know and I fully expect him to bounce back well his chance comes right now two set points down two collate shooting first in the second [Music] as predicted by John Stubbs the 2008 paralympic champion particularly has hit the middle of the target for the first time in the match it's got shooted by the eye time I knew nine [Applause] nine that's a good group so good Arrow here put this one Out Of Reach needs a tent for the points oh that's drifted off into the six but it looks I think it's for a 25 so points could go to travisani here anything more than a seven oh that's right on the line I think that is a seven called a liner in venue so they will measure that but I fancy that will get marked up to a seven which if my maths is right means they're both on 25 and uh travisani well if you like saved a point really in the match yeah they were clean yeah clearly both shocked by that then I obviously think the wind got up down and caught them both on just surprisingly if you like you know the the French guy shooting 44 pounds so that was a bit of a surprise the the look nothing strange in the loose I purely think that was caught on the Wind these tiny margins make such a big difference but as John said uh both of them having shot into the gold with their first two hours drifting out because of the wind and uh now it's going to be a question of who cannot dust themselves off after that uh not error but um wind affected Arrow but it's Gusty isn't it it's not if you you can look at the long grass in in the background it it's just fluttering a little bit but it's not a steady wind which is so tricky for you archers yeah you've got to use everything that's in in view to be honest I made your call just on what you can see [Applause] so the door is now open for the Frenchman tukalay needs to take advantage of this one can drifting out to the right so nine here to level things up to the 10. advantage travisani right John absolutely he's got it all to win now you can see it windy in the background 26 set by guilloticalay and if they're in the gold I'll do no oh that's just what he's done as well and at 27 for travisani he gets the two set points uh when really again chocolate had the opportunity yet again to close the gap up that's two opportunities by the Frenchman lost there John absolutely yeah it'd be kicking himself yeah he you know he's got a lot of experience you know he's you know and looking to his coach for guidance you know he should be judging this himself so I think sorry I think he's letting I think he's letting the weather get into his head too much rather than just aiming at the Target and you know committed to the shot we talked about um the opportunity to learn and you know you guaranteed that silver medal as you said but tukalay still in this match he's five one down he'll shoot first in the fourth he really needs to win this one to give himself some confidence he does he'll still be five straight down but he shoots first in the fourth hey yes and it went to the right as well or the left I should say seven which is that's the way the virus yeah that's the way the arrows have no been normally been going so the French guys sort of been aiming off so perhaps over compensating [Music] still drifting out to the left but this time into the nine seven though from travisani is he starting to struggle with the weather I think so yeah the group's good and and you can see uh travisani now adjusting his sight good idea you're on an into nine looks like it's cut the line I'm gonna call that that's enough yes enough yeah 26 puts this one Out Of Reach the travisani correcting for a 24 was that a 23 a 23 so uh the points do go to Gian tukalay not in the most convincing manner but point to point and uh he Trails by five points to three now close the gap up cut the deficit in half and we will go into a fifth and final regulation set and of course two colay if he wins that will force the shoot off needs to start well again and put some pressure on his opponent so we're back in that situation now where um the athletic shooting first is trailing but has the advantage in inverted commas to put down a big score and put the pressure on his opponent now the opponent then scores well the pressure switch is back so we've got a really tense final regulation set right absolutely and as you saw in that last Arrow by the Italian I actually think that it moved his sight over to compensate for the wind and he trusted with his position in and of his aperture on his side and just went with the last shot to see where it ended up so we could take it Forward into this end so he he knew he was beaten but he used it as a fact-finding arrow mm-hmm yes John said that fat finding arrow in what effectively was a dead arrow is uh what it's all about preparing himself travisani here for this set a 10 put down matched by travisani and we have got this battle now of pressure it's with tukalay at the moment needs another good Arrow into the nine not bad is it enough no this is why I was coming to expect absolutely this is the experience shining through yeah travisani pops it into the ten this is now in the Italian's hand good score on this Arrow to put some pressure on from tukalay drifted out wide into the eight four a 27 not a bad score but an eight well in fact a Seven's enough for the win puts it into a nine and what a great final set there from both of the archers but in the end it's Stefano dramasani from Italy who secures a 7-3 win over game two clay from France and uh travisani takes the gold in the recurve men's open category here in Novi Mesto at the first stage of the Euro para archery Grand Prix