Executive Board Meeting Review

In his opening remarks, the President Prof. Dr Ugur ERDENER noted that 2012 has been a tremendous year for archery. Of course, the pinnacle of the season took place in London, where the iconic venue of Lord’s Cricket Ground became the Home of Archery for the Games and allowed our sport to showcase itself at its best!   During the Games, TV channels all over the world were delighted with the spectacular competitions at Lord’s and archery held a record audience on NBC cable network in the USA. The audience has also been strong on Eurosport as well as in other countries such as Korea, Japan, Australia, Mexico and Italy. The men’s team final, in which Italy won the gold medal with a perfect 10 at the last arrow, attracted a record market share of 29% in this country! Moreover, archery enjoyed a new record of 60,410 tickets sold. The previous record was in Atlanta 96. In London, the stands were at 99% full and they were rocking! In the official survey at the exit of the venue, the fans were unanimous (97%) saying that the experience at Lord’s has been great!   The Olympic success took nothing away from our other events, on the contrary, as the World Cup stages, the Final in Tokyo, the World Archery Indoor Championships, the World Archery Field Championships were all very successful in terms of athletes’ performance, and satisfaction, spectator experience and media coverage. Archery also enjoyed the appearance of special guests during these events: Longines ambassador Andre AGASSI in Las Vegas, the basketball star Yao MING in Shanghai and snowboard Olympic medallist Mathieu BOZZETTO in Val d’Isere.   World Archery is now turning its attention to the 2013 season, which will be as busy as ever with the World Cup, the Final in Paris on the Trocadero plaza at the feet of the Eiffel Tower, four world championships and the World Games. Looking ahead, the board has attributed the World Archery Para Championships 2015 to Donaueschingen in Germany, while candidatures for some other world championships are still open.   The board was happy to receive the reports related to the applications of two new Member Associations, Virgin Islands and Rwanda. Upon completion, there will be more than 150 Member Associations affiliated to World Archery! However, the board also had to temporally suspend the Iranian Archery Federation, as long as it has not held new elections.   Among the accepted bylaws, the board approved that 3D athletes will now shoot two arrows at each target with a 1-minute time limit during the qualifications round. Another discussion took place about possible changes that will be proposed at the next Congress in Antalya 2013, which includes a change of the qualification round for recurve, a change to set system for recurve team matches and a diversification between compound and recurve for indoor rounds. The board also asked the office to study the calendar and to see how it can become more adapted to the current economic climate.     Finally, the excellent feedback of the London Games and the World Cup Final in Tokyo were last proofs that the World Archery Plan 2007-2012, that aimed at making archery an important Olympic sport, has been a great success! Now the board has already turned its attention to the World Archery Plan 2013-2016. The focus of the plan will shift to our Member Associations (national federations). The motto is: let’s make archery nationally recognized as an important Olympic sport. If the sport gets stronger in each country, it will be stronger worldwide. World Archery will help key countries that have projects to develop the sport—and reapply successful projects to similar countries in the region or in the world.   The Executive Board is satisfied with the financial situation of the federation at the end of the 2008-2012 cycle. It approved the addition of two staff members for the office, in event management and in communication, so that it remains competitive in an ever changing and growing world of sport. World Archery is looking forward to keeping improving the organisation and the activities of the federation to ensure it takes the next steps forward during the upcoming Olympic cycle.   For more information please refer to the Executive Board Meeting minutes that will be published in due course.   Tom DIELEN World Archery Secretary General