Elia Canales five-set win over Spanish teammate Leyre Fernandez in the recurve women’s final required a comeback from 4-2 down.
The diminutive 21-year-old, who’s repeatedly shown flashes of ruthless determination in the arena, dropped a 29-point fourth set to level the match before doing just enough with her last arrow, delivering the nine required to shut Fernandez out.
It’s the second career podium for Canales at a world-ranking-level event or above – and the second win. (Her first was in Antalya in 2021.)
Talking of Antalya, Türkiye’s trip from its own gusty training facility there to the equally challenging Umag proved lucrative. Olympic Champion Mete Gazoz was the best recurve man on the field from qualifying to a 6-2 final win over France’s Thomas Chirault, while Batuhan Akcaoglu’s experience gave him the faster start, and a one-point-better finish, over the compound men’s reigning World Archery Champion Nico Wiener.
Spain and Türkiye picked up critical world ranking points in the team events, the former winning the women’s competition, the latter the men’s.
There’s another European event taking place in the coming week, this time for youth archers in the Swiss city of Sion. But Umag winner Shkolna’s scheduled to be there, too – on the coaching, rather than shooting, line.
“I’m still very tired after the competition but this week I change the activity and it will give me time to recover,” said Mariya. “The game is the same but the bow is in the hand of another archer. I always try to share as much as I can and think how I would react in some situations and, of course, give the support which I know as an athlete they might need.”
Another new perspective for Shkolna? It looks like they’re paying off.
