Marco Morello grateful to recurve as compound journey starts with podium

Marco Morello has been a compound men’s archer for four to five years, but before 2025, his appearances were sporadic.

His hometown secondary club, Gli Arcieri Iuvenilia in Turin, is dominated by recurve – the discipline he once competed in – which helped him build a career through the sports centre at l'Aeronautica Militare, the Italian National Air Force, his primary team.

In field archery in particular, Morello became a serious contender for recurve men’s major honours, including silver in the under-21 category at the 2012 World Archery Field Championships in Val d’Isère. He later transitioned to the seniors, becoming European Field Champion in 2017, bronze medallist at the 2022 World Games, and, as recently as September this year, silver medallist at the European Field Championships in Walbrzych-Ksiaz.

“I’m a recurve archer, an Olympic archer – I still call it Olympic because that’s what launched me into this world, brought me into the national team, and allowed me to become a professional,” he said. “I’m part of the Italian Air Force sports centre, and thanks to the recurve I’ve been able to turn my passion into my job. I owe it a lot.”

Initially, Morello only competed in compound events to represent Iuvenilia – there being no other compound archers at the club. But he has fallen in love with archery’s newest addition to the Olympic programme for LA28 and has now made the full switch.

From the start, it appears to have been the right decision. In his first international compound competition, he won bronze at the Indoor World Series opener in Lausanne last month, his only defeat coming against rising star and eventual Swiss Open winner Ajay Scott, 147-150.

A fantastic start indoors, with one eye also on 50 metres next summer, where he’ll be in the national team having achieved the minimum score requirements in Italy.

“Lausanne was a surprise for me. I expected a lower qualifying rank, somewhere around seed 10, 12, 15, so the first match might have been manageable, while from the second on it would have been tougher,” said Morello, who finished sixth after 60 arrows with 595 – a new personal best.

“I wanted a change because after many years with the recurve, I felt like taking on a new challenge, putting myself back in the game. So in 2025, I decided to shoot both disciplines while already giving priority to the compound.”

“From this winter, in the indoor season, I want to dedicate myself 100 per cent to see what I can achieve and how far I can go.”

Beating a future national teammate in your first medal match in a new discipline is certainly a sign of potential.

Marco Bruno has been a mainstay on Italy’s compound men’s team since 2019 and has been most successful at non-target events, notably holding European 3D and Field championship titles simultaneously in 2023. His six-plus years of international compound experience – including 12 World Cup stage appearances – didn’t matter for Morello, who beat his compatriot 149-147 despite “a lot of light” at the World Archery Excellence Centre that made aiming slightly difficult.

Brady Ellison is arguably the leading example of a cross-discipline star in archery, though the 36-year-old did it the other way – starting in compound before transitioning to recurve.

Morello has been in the sport long enough to understand the differences between the two disciplines, but beginning his compound journey like this, he credits his recurve history as a key factor.

“Maybe there is a small advantage because the recurve is a more physical bow with no aid from the equipment,” commented the Piemontese native. “You release from the fingers, you finish the movement by increasing effort. This can give a little advantage.

“On the other hand, the compound is very complex, fine, precise: you must be perfect. Making yellow is no longer enough; you must shoot 10s every time.”

“It’s not easy. I thought I had a good level. Lausanne showed something, but it’s only a starting point.”

Of course, there will be things for Morello to tweak, and seeing Scott’s precision firsthand demonstrated that at this level, even the smallest mistakes in compound can be costly.

Indoors especially, dropping one nine drastically reduces chances of winning – a completely different mindset from recurve.

Still, everyone has to start somewhere, and Marco Morello’s somewhere was a bronze in Lausanne, surely a golden sign of things to come for him and Italy.

“I’m happy it went well, but it’s just one step in a long journey, so I have to keep working harder to be ready,” he said, preparing for his next feat.