Alberto Simonelli, the 1998 world champion, led an Italian one-two in the compound men’s open qualifying, scoring 697 points after the 72-arrow round to finish five points clear of team mate Matteo Bonacina.

When added to their compatriot Gianpaolo Cancelli’s score of 673 points, Simonelli and Bonacina’s total of 1,389 points secured Italy the world record-breaking mark in a highly-competitive team category.

"I felt good and shot well, but I am always looking to improve," said the 48-year-old Simonelli.

"This year I have trained very hard and targeted achieving 700 points.

"I felt strong coming into the competition and I want to win just like all the other archers here."

Although the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games silver medallist didn’t quite fulfil his aim, he was consistently at the top of the leaderboard.

Defending world champion John Stubbs of Great Britain had to settle for fifth, one place behind London 2012 silver medallist Matt Stutzman of the United States.

Just eight points separated second placed Bonacina and the number 10 finisher, Jonathon Milne of Australia.

Meanwhile in the women’s W1 category, which is making its debut at the World Championships, China’s Guo Ying and British pair Jo Frith and Jessica Stretton all scored 640 out of 720 points in the 72-arrow ranking round.

China’s Ying shot 21 tens, the most of anyone, followed by number one ranked Frith and Stretton, with 19 and 15, respectively.

Frith and Stretton, along with fellow Briton Vicky Jenkins, shot a combined score of 1,880 points which is the highest known to date in the fledgling division.

The qualification score cannot be ratified as a world record though as there isn’t an official team event for the category in Donaueschingen, with Britain being the only nation to field a full three-athlete women’s roster.

Although the W1 category, which permits athletes to use modified-specification recurve and compound bows, existed prior to the new classification categories coming into effect on April 1 of last year, it was only for male competitors.

Czech Republic’s David Drahoninsky, the Beijing 2008 Paralympic champion, comfortably leads the men’s W1 ranking round, posting a session-high score of 672 out of a possible 720 points.

Second to Drahoninsky was the US’s Jeff Fabry, the London 2012 Paralympic gold medallist, on 650 points, while Britain’s John Walker rounded out the top three with 647.

Britain were the strongest in the VI2/3 competition with Steve Prowse posting a top score of 636 points and team mate Peter Price totalling 534 for second, while Janice Walth’s 362 put her at the summit of the VI1 category.



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