Nine countries already qualified for the World Games

Lausanne, June 14, 2012: The World Games will be held in Cali, Colombia in 2013, for both the compound men and women. The recent African Championships, European Championships, and Panamerican Championships were used as Continental Qualifiers.

The outdoor target archery competition of the 2013 World Games will feature only the compound division (field archery is also on the programme of the World Games – details on the competition format can be found here: http://www.archery.org/default.asp?s_id=0&m_id=3992&cnt_id=6269).

Twenty-four men and twenty-four women will qualify for the compound competition, where three podiums will be awarded – men, women and mixed team.

A total of nine places per gender have already been allocated. Three Continental Qualifiers have already taken place: the 2012 African Championships allocated four spots (two per gender), the 2012 Panamerican Championships awarded six spots (three women and three men), and there were six spots (three per gender) up for grabs at the European Championships in Amsterdam, where several world-class archers were present.

At the African Qualifier in March, Petrus MARX won a spot for South Africa by placing first in the men’s event. The second position for the World Games went to Namibia, thanks to a good performance and the second rank by François MARAIS. Namibia won two more positions in the women’s competition, thanks to Beanta VIVIERS and Iroleen VAN LITZENBORGHPAGE, who placed first and second, respectively.

At the European Championships in Amsterdam in late May, the individual champion Sergio PAGNI won a spot for Italy; the runner-up Martin DAMSBO claimed one for Denmark; the third and final spot went to Germany thanks to Paul TITSCHER’s third-place finish. On the women’s side, the individual gold medallist Kristina BERGER acquired a place for Germany, while Italy won two spots thanks to Anastasia ANASTASIO and Marcella TONIOLI, who finished second and third.

Our review of the Americas World Games Qualifier, which took place in late May, can be found here: http://www.archery.org/default.asp?s_id=0&m_id=3992&cnt_id=7165

So far the host nation Colombia has four spots, Italy and Namibia have three, El Salvador and Germany two, while Denmark, South Africa, the United States, and Venezuela have one.

At the World Games, the compound athletes will shoot the 50m Round in qualifications: 72 arrows at 50 metres on a target face with six scoring rings (10-5 points). Each arrow out of the 5-point ring is considered as a Miss (0 point). The score is cumulative. At the end of qualifications, the athletes or teams are paired on a match chart based on their ranking (byes may be awarded).

Individual athletes will play matches of 15 arrows with cumulative score; in case of a tie, a shoot-off of 1 arrow will be played. Mixed teams will play matches of 16 arrows (8 per archer) with cumulative score; in case of a tie, each archer shoots 1 more arrow for the best cumulative score; if the score is still tied, the arrow closest to the centre defines the winners.