11 January 2010 - Discover the Nations of Archery: Croatia

Discover the Nations of Archery: Croatia Lausanne - 11 January 2010   Croatia is an independent country since 1991 located in central Europe. It was formerly a Yugoslav Republic. The population of Croatia is 4.5 million inhabitants.   The first archery club was founded in Zagreb in 1955. The Croatia Archery Association (CAA) was established in 1972 as part of the Yugoslavian Archery Federation. In 1992 it became the first Croatian Sport Organisation affiliated to an International Sport Federation: FITA. Nikola SKORIC was Vice-President of FITA & editor of the FITA newsletter then called "The Arrow" and was awarded a Gold Plaquette during the 1987 FITA Congress for his great contribution to archery.   In 1997 there were a dozen archery clubs in Croatia. In 2004 that number increased to 22, and today there are 45 clubs with more than 900 archers practicing. Among the best Croatian archers of the past, Zoran MATKOVIC ranked 10th at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, and Andrea Cizmek won bronze at the 2001 World Indoor Championships. The best current archer is 24-year-old Ivana BUDEN, who has been among the top-ranked Compound Women since 2000.   Alojz MAUSER – former elite archer and President of the CAA, organiser of major archery tournaments – attributes this strong development to a combination of different criteria: ·         organisation of high-level tournaments with a good media coverage; ·         practice of archery in schools, ·         promotion of archery during fairs, ·         team-building sessions for companies using archery ·         …   Currently the CAA has a structure of one employee, several coaches and 17 judges (some of them international or continental judges). The CAA organises 40 tournaments per year at the national level in all divisions and the following types: Outdoor Rounds (70m, FITA and900 Rounds), Indoor, Field and 3D Archery.   The CAA has a long experience of organising major archery events: They were the organiser of the 1st ever Archery World Cup Stage in 2006 and every year since 2008. They also hosted several European Grand Prix since 2001, the European Junior Cup in 2000, the European Junior Championships in 2001, the European Field Championship in 2007 and the World Field Championship in 1974 and 2004. The CAA also organised several coaches and judges seminars. In the near future the CAA will organise the following events: the 2010 European Indoor Championships and a stage of the World Cup in 2010, 2011 and 2012.   Last year, the CAA started to build a national para-archery team, directed especially toward the numerous persons with war injuries. Another important project of the CAA is to become a FITA accredited partner centre in Porec, where any FITA Member Association could hold training camps as well as courses and seminars for coaches, judges and organisers. It is expected that this centre will contribute to an increase in the number and level of archers in Croatia and the neighbouring countries.   Pascal COLMAIRE, Director of the FITA Department of Development  Edited by FITA Communication