World Archery president and IOC vice president Prof Dr Ugur Erdener laid the first stone of the World Archery Excellence Centre in the Olympic Capital of Lausanne today. 

The development was welcomed by IOC president Dr Thomas Bach, who said “Archery is one of the most ancient sports, but it has also been an innovator throughout its history and that is shown here at this centre once more.

“We are looking forward to see many future Olympians and Olympic and Youth Olympic Champions prepare here for Buenos Aires, Tokyo and beyond, and if work on the Centre keeps on progressing at this pace, even for Rio.”

The centre is set to become a hub for the development of Olympic, elite and recreational archery worldwide. Construction is set to be completed next year, with the centre opening its doors after the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The World Archery Excellence Centre’s design and operational plan is environmentally friendly. The Centre will be heated by geothermal wells, will feature extensive solar panelling and has been designed to maximise the effect of natural light inside the building. 

“This is a historic moment for archery,” said Erdener. 

“We are very grateful for the support of the Canton of Vaud, the city of Lausanne, IOC president Dr Thomas Bach, the board of FIDTA and everyone else who made this project possible.

“Over the last few years we have seen a dramatic increase in participation and global recognition in our sport. There is still much work to do and as an organisation and a sport we constantly aim to innovate, evolve and development.

“Vital to this mission is the World Archery Excellence Centre: a hub, cornerstone and a state-of-the-art example of archery’s drive to always improve. We are confident that this new facility will help us build on the momentum archery has built over the past few years, serve our development goals and move towards a future where everyone has the opportunity to make the sport of archery their elite or recreational activity of choice.”

Facilities at the world-class venue will include indoor and outdoor ranges for international athletes to train for major international, multisport and World Archery events – including future Olympiads – and a state-of-the-art gym. The Centre will also host theoretical and practical courses for the sport’s technical officials and coaches in its conference and meeting rooms.

The elite facilities will also be used for training camps for young people from the local community and as an outreach centre for archery in the area. The Excellence Centre’s offices will be dedicated to conceiving innovative ideas to develop the sport from grassroots through to elite around the world.

Axcel Sights is the first company to join World Archery’s new sponsorship programme, through which it will support the Archery World Cup and World Archery Championships over 2015.

Signing a one year deal, Axcel Sights are now the Official Sight Partner of World Archery in 2015. 

World Archery’s new sponsorship programme is designed to offer organisations greater exposure around international events, as well as to provide greater opportunities to develop the sport.

The US company had assumed title sponsorship of the European stage of the 2013/14 Indoor Archery World Cup in Telford and supported national events in the Netherlands, the US, Britain, Italy and other destinations in recent years. 

Axcel Sight’s parent company has just celebrated its 20th anniversary of producing archery products after launching its first in 1995. The company owns a large portion of the US domestic archery market.

The company has grown quickly internationally over the last decade with the introduction of compound target sights and marketing directed overseas.

The recurve versions of the company’s sights have been well-received, with many top and recreational archers adopting the equipment.

Recalling his experiences of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Axcel Sights president Gregory Summers said “I visited with my family and watched the recurve men’s finals. I saw OH Jin Hyek take gold– and realised he was shooting one of our sights.

“I didn’t know the Korean Olympic Champion was an Axcel archer until I saw it there in London!”

Mexico City has simultaneously been awarded the right to host archery’s two biggest events : the World Cup Final in 2015 and the World Championships in 2017. 

Mexico is a fast-growing region for the sport, developing into a key market for international archery following the team’s success at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Mexico was the only nation to put two athletes on the same podium at London 2012, with Aida Roman winning recurve women’s silver and Mariana Avitia winning bronze. 

The hosting rights were awarded through a bidding procedure.

“There is a formal bid process, with candidate cities, countries or federations submitting a World Archery-standard bid document and questionnaire, which is usually supported by an additional dossier produced by the LOC,” a spokesperson for World Archery told HOST CITY.

“Our Executive Board votes on its preferred hosts based on this bid documentation.”

Poland and Ukraine had also put in a joint bid for the 2017 World Championships. The World Archery federation was founded in Lviv and a bid is anticipated for future event, particularly as the 2019 World Championships will be the 50th edition. 

And for the 2015 World Cup Final, South Korea was the other party interested in hosting rights. 

World Archery cited the backing of Mexico City’s Mayor Dr Miguel Angel Mancera, Director of Sport and former athlete Mr Horacio de la Vega, national government and broadcasters as the key players in persuading the World Archery Executive Board to award both events to the same organiser.

“It is a sport on the rise in popularity and participation and there is a significant audience for its international events and athletes within the country,” de la Vega said.

2015 will be the second time that Mexico has hosted the Archery World Cup Final, after hosting the inaugural World Cup Final at the Mayapan Pyramids in 2006, when nearby Merida also hosted the World Archery Youth Championships.

Mexico City hosted the Olympic Games in 1968 and has also hosted the Pan American, Caribbean and Central American Games. 

Mexico City promoted its candidature by creating the Mexican Challenge, first held at the end of 2013. The innovative event – produced by Moveo Lab, the sports company that will organise both the newly-awarded tournaments – pitched eight of Mexico’s finest against eight top archers from the rest of the world.

World Archery Secretary General Mr Tom Dielen said “With the Mexican Challenge concept, this organising committee proved that it shares our values of putting athletes at the heart of international archery competition. We are confident it will build on that success with two of World Archery’s flagship tournaments.”

The two tournaments offer very different dynamics. The annual World Cup Final is held over a weekend, features the year’s top 32 athletes and focuses on individual match-play and sports presentation. The final of the 2014 Archery World Cup will be held in the Olympic capital of Lausanne, where World Archery has its headquarters. 

The biannual World Championships involve more than 500 archers from 70 nations over ten days. The 2015 World Archery Championships will be hosted in Copenhagen.

For future events, prospective host organisations can contact World Archery directly to see which events are currently open for bidding.

[Source: Commonwealth Games Federation] A Commonwealth Archery and Shooting Championships is set to take place in India in 2022 after a proposal to stage the event was approved by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Executive Board.

The event will be held in Chandigarh, the capital of the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, and is scheduled to be staged in January 2022.

It adds to a hugely exciting year for Commonwealth Sport, with Birmingham set to stage the 2022 Commonwealth Games from 27 July – 7 August 2022.

The decision confirmed that Chandigarh 2022 and Birmingham 2022 will be two separately organised and funded Commonwealth Sport events.

One week following the Closing Ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, the CGF shall issue a medal table that includes results from the Chandigarh 2022 Commonwealth Archery and Shooting Championships, as a further and final legitimate ranking of competing nations and territories from the respective competitions.

The CGF Executive Board approved the proposal at their meeting in London which took place on February 21-23; and highlighted the opportunity for this innovative model to promote and encourage the development and hosting of sport throughout the Commonwealth.

The proposal from Commonwealth Games India (CGI), which was supported by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the Government of India, the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) and World Archery, was also considered and discussed with Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Partners prior to the CGF Executive Board decision.

CGF President Dame Louise Martin said: “I am delighted that we have approved India’s ambitious proposal to host a Commonwealth Archery and Shooting Championships in Chandigarh during 2022.

“Commonwealth archery and shooting athletes now have an unprecedented opportunity to compete in an elite event that will showcase the very best of Commonwealth Sport and add value to the Commonwealth Sports Movement.

“The CGF would like to thank the CGI, the NRAI, the Government of India and the entire sporting community of India on the significant efforts they have taken to submit an innovative proposal with the ambition of strengthening Commonwealth Sport.

“I would like to give particular thanks to CGI President Dr Narinder Dhruv Batra, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sport Kiren Rijiju and NRAI President Raninder Singh for their leadership across this proposal.”

CGI President Dr Narinder Dhruv Batra said: “We are very pleased that our proposal was considered by the Federation and look forward to continuing to engage with all stakeholders to ensure that the Commonwealth Archery and Shooting Championships is a resounding success for the Commonwealth Sports Movement.

“Our proposal provides more opportunities for Commonwealth athletes to compete on the world stage, and we look forward to welcoming the Commonwealth’s best shooters and archers to Chandigarh in 2022.

“Team India looks forward to competing at Chandigarh 2022 and Birmingham 2022, and discussing further how we promote closer ties with India and its athletes and the wider Commonwealth sport community.”

The CGF Executive Board also saw key updates on the Trinbago 2021 Commonwealth Youth Games and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

There were further updates on the 2026 Commonwealth Games Bid Process, with a Host City set to be announced later this year.

The next CGF Board meeting is scheduled to take place in June 2020 in Birmingham.

[Source: World Archery] World Archery has announced that the Shanghai stage of the 2020 Hyundai Archery World Cup in May will be moved as the city will instead host this year’s Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in the autumn.

A new host for the stage is expected to be announced shortly.

The other stages of the international tour will take place as planned in Guatemala City on 20-26 April and in Berlin, Germany on 21-28 June. The Final is tentatively scheduled for 26-27 September but that date is still to be confirmed.

Stages of the Hyundai Archery World Cup are large competitions open to national teams. The top 32 archers over the season are then invited to compete at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final.

Shanghai has held a stage in 12 of the international circuit’s 14 seasons since 2006 but no city in China has previously hosted the Final.

World Archery had been monitoring the situation around the COVID-19 outbreak since late January. A change to the calendar was required in view of recently introduced travel restrictions on athletes and officials, and the packed international schedule.

World Archery secretary general Tom Dielen said: “World Archery is pleased to be taking the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final to China and the Pudong New Area of Shanghai in particular. Current circumstances meant a change was necessary but we see this as an extremely positive outcome for the athletes and sport.”

Host City: What do you see as the most important issue facing major events today and why?

Prof. Dr. Ugur Erdener: Unpredictable international political situations, which result in security and economic issues, are much more in focus in the modern world. Then there is doping and match fixing – both serious issues that cannot be overlooked. Protecting clean athletes is a particular priority of mine.

How is World Archery leading the fight against doping?

As a lower risk sport our emphasis has progressively shifted towards education. However, we increased the number of in- and out-of-competition tests taking place in 2016 following two cases at the start of the year.

Both were rooted in a lack of knowledge and attributed to accidental use rather than performance-enhancing doping. These cases are very sad, as they are not intentional and are completely avoidable.

In the lead up to Rio 2016, World Archery actively targeted Russian athletes for doping control, which – in the end – allowed us to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they were not implicated in any doping activities. That allowed them to compete in Rio at the Olympic Games. I believe that we had to protect clean athletes' rights for participating in the Rio Games.

What was the highlight of Rio 2016 for you?

The archery competition at the Olympic Games in Rio was great success. Our broadcast hit record numbers in Germany, France and Korea, and received excellent viewing figures in the USA and other major markets.

The quality of the competition on the field of play was excellent, featured athletes from 56 countries, and we ended with medals going to four of the five continents.

What for you will be the greatest legacy of Rio 2016?

Seven years ago, Brazil did not have a fully-formed archery team. Now, the nation has several professional archery athletes, and a good coaching and judging structure. If progress continues, Brazil will soon be challenging for medals.

World Archery substantially increased its worldwide exposure across all kinds of media. There was a 52 per cent rise in the number of Facebook fans during the Games period.

In general, we can say there is a huge transformation in the city, a big legacy related to many high level sports facilities – and of course their management and maintenance will be important going forwards.

As a speaker at Host City 2016, what are your expectations of this important event – what do you hope to share and learn?

Host cities are critical partners in the success of any event. As a sport federation, we are constantly working to see how to better exchange expectations and expertise with our host cities, to ensure our events are a win for both parties.

Hopefully, this event promotes and nurtures this positive collaboration.

Why is it important for cities and rights holders of sports, business and cultural events to have the opportunity to connect at Host City 2016?

Successful events only take place when stakeholders truly collaborate.

Not only is it important for sports – or event rights holders – and cities to find the correct fits, for both parties, but be able to define common objectives that allow them to work together to deliver results for both parties in a true partnership.

Prof. Dr. Ugur Erdener is delivering a keynote address at Host City 2016, the largest meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events. For more information visit http://www.hostcity.com/events/host-city-2016