Italy's Archery golden girls face in-form Germans

Baku, June 21, AZERTAC Two of Italy's Archery gold medallists from the women's team event will face in-form Germans on Sunday afternoon after coming through tough eliminations in the women's individual competition earlier in the day. Guendalina Sartori meets Germany's Elena Richter, one of the highest scorers from Thursday. Her teammate Elena Tonetta survived a close match against Veronika Marchenko of Ukraine, bronze medallist in the team event, and will meet another German and the ranking round's highest scorer, Lisa Unruh. Tonetta shot a perfect final set to clinch victory. "In the first few days here I was quite agitated but now as soon as I step on the field of play I feel good, as if I were at home. Today I feel very well both mentally and with my technique. I am cool." The final member of the Italian gold medal-winning women's team, Natalia Valeeva, who also won gold in the mixed team event, was denied the chance to add to her medal tally after being knocked out by Georgia's Yuliya Lobzhenidze in Sunday's opening match. Germany's other female archer, Karina Winter, the highest-ranked European coming into the competition, will face Russia's Natalia Erdynieva after scraping through a shoot-off against Beghunan Unsal of Turkey. World champion Maja Jager of Denmark will play a confident Berengere Schuh of France in the next round. "I know she's strong. I am too, and I know I can beat her," Schuh said. "Just because she was second in qualification, that doesn't mean I'm going to let her win." The surprise package of the morning was Evangelia Psarra of Greece, a four-time Olympian who knocked out no.5 seed Kristina Timofeeva of Russia, just six months after returning to the sport. "I wasn't expecting to be here. After London (the 2012 Olympic Games) I gave up archery. I have two children and a job," she said. "I am a lieutenant in the air force. It was very hard because my coach is also my husband. We are both away. So the day before we left they cried all day."