During the USA Archery Board conference call on Friday, Dec. 18, the Board revisited the ruling that had passed a month prior related to an archer receiving a zero if ANY part of the scorecard is found to be inaccurate.

After hearing discussion and feedback from the Officials and Rules committee, who called the ruling, "unenforceable" and contrary to the FITA judges guidebook with instructions to, "Protect the archer's score," the Board ruled in favor of replacing this with the Officials and Rules Committee suggestion which is more in line with the FITA rulebook. The rule will be as follows:

• If two arrow values disagree once the arrows are withdrawn - the archer receives the lower value
• Once the scorecards are signed and turned into event organizers
  • If a box is not filled in - it is a zero (including a total score or distance score)
  • If a score total is greater than correct - it gets corrected
  • If a score total is lesser than correct - it stays the lower score

The major reason this issue was brought to the Board, was the increasing number of inaccurate or incomplete scorecards at events that would eventually be sent to the national office. The Board felt that action needed to be taken to clarify what the expectations were of both athletes and organizers. 

The Board's original intent with the change was to put more responsibility on the archers to ensure their scorecard was accurate and complete prior to turning it in to event organizers.  Even though the penalty will be less severe, it is an issue we need to deal with on a national level. 

Ultimately, it is the archer's responsibility to check their scorecards and complete properly, which will lead to cleaner competitions and alleviate the organizers of the sole responsibility.  In addition, organizers need to be better at checking the two scorecards against each other and for completeness prior to accepting and posting the scorecard.  

The Board and I will work diligently with the Officials and Rules committee to ensure this rule is clear to all participants in 2010. We will work closely and provide consistent interpretations of the rules to all judges and tournament organizers.

Regards,

Denise