Archery

AN INSIGHT INTO THE SPORT OF ARCHERY

The bow was man’s first invention to store energy in a practical way to hunt game at a distance. Over the centuries the bow became a weapon of war and in England, Edward III, by Royal Proclamation, insisted that everyone strong in body should practice archery skills every Sunday to provide trained archers for the service of the \king, as it took many years to become proficient in the use of the bow. Even now the official body guard to the Queen of Scotland is “The Royal Company of Archers”.
As the bow was superseded by firearms, it slowly became a sporting weapon and was first promoted as such in the Modern Olympics held in Paris in the year 1900. It also featured in 1904, 1908 and 1920, re-entering the Olympics in Munich in 1972 and has featured in every Games up to the present day.
Modern archery is controlled today by the world governing body “F.I.T.A” Federation International Tir A Larc, the Great Britain affiliated body being Archery G.B. to whom Jersey Archery Clubs are members.

TYPES OF BOW

There are two types of bow permitted for international competition, these being “Recurve” and “Compound”. The recurve bow is constructed using space age alloys and carbon fibre. This bow is shot with only the use of a fore-sight, the rear sight being a constant hand position under the chin.
The compound bow is made with similar materials but incorporates a mechanical method through a series of cams and pulleys to store some energy within the bow structure. It has a magnifying foresight and a ‘peep’ rear sight and is able to use a single point release trigger, as opposed to the archers’ fingers.

ARCHERY IN THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES

Archery was included in the Brisbane Games in 1982 and was contested by 11 countries. Jersey had 4 archers that qualified to compete but as archery was a new sport to the Games nobody was selected at that time. Archery is now to be included at the Games in Delhi in October 2010.

CLASSIFICATION

Archery GB has a performance classification system. It ranges from 3rd to 2nd to 1st Class Archer, then to Bowman to Master Bowman and to Grand Master Bowman. To attain the classification of Master Bowman and grand Master Bowman, an archer must equal or exceed three specific scores at Record Status Tournaments. These qualifying scores for classification are regularly upgraded by Archery GB.
In the year 2007, the total number of archers attaining classification as Master Bowman in both Recurve and Compound disciplines was 117. Of these 30 were ladies and 87 were men. (Figures supplied by Archery GB) There are currently 30,000 members and over 100 clubs affiliated to Archery GB.

F.I.T.A. Events.

A FITA round consists of 36 shots at 4 distances making a total of a maximum of 144 shots. These distances being 90m, 70m, 50m, and 30m for men and 70m, 60m, 50, and 30m for ladies. Arrows are shot and scored in ends of 6 at the 2 longest distances, and ends of 3 at the 2 shortest distances. At major tournaments shooting equipment is scrutinised by the judges prior to shooting. The shooting is controlled by audible signals to take position on the shooting line, then to commence shooting. The archer has a maximum time of 4 minutes to shoot 6 arrows at the longest distances and 2 minutes to shoot 3 arrows at the shorter distances. Any arrows not shot in time are disallowed. During 2008 there were 45 FITA Star tournaments in Great Britain and some Jersey archers also travel to FITA Star events in Malta and other European Countries.

ARCHERY IN JERSEY

There are 3 archery clubs currently active in Jersey and they have promoted the formation of an association to represent the interests of all local archers. This association is ‘THE ARCHERY ASSOCIATION OF JERSEY’. This association has been accepted as a member of THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES ASSOCIATION OF JERSEY and hopes to put forward names of competitors for consideration to compete in the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi in October 2010.

Jersey archer hits gold standard in Delhi

Published: March 2010 taken from www.Jersey2015.com

Lucy O’Sullivan overcame stiff competition to claim the women’s individual compound title at the recent Commonwealth Games test event in New Delhi earlier this month.

The 19-year-old student, ranked fourth after the preliminaries, saw off the challenge of Scotland’s Tracey McGowan in the semi-finals before beating home favourite Gagandeep Kaur over five sets to take the gold.

This latest win follows her victory in the inaugural Archery GB National Series competition last year and will be a great confidence booster as she continues her preparations for the forthcoming season.

Lucy was joined in India by Mike Coward, Geoff Hairon and Steve Roche, who gained valuable international experience competing for Jersey in both the men’s individual and team recurve.

Nearly 100 archers from nine nations took part in the invitational event, which was organised by the Archery Association of India as part of the run-up to the Commonwealth Games in October this year.