MEXICO CITY, Mexico - Just days before the World Archery Championships, the 52nd World Archery Congress was hosted in Mexico City, Mexico. The congress featured several important presentations, awards, committee elections, and votes on bylaws that will shape our sport for the future.
World Archery recognized USA Archery with 1st place for the "Member Associations and Female Athletes Award" in celebration of USA Archery's "involvement in gender equity in archery and outstanding women participation in the 2015 & 2016 Archery World Cup." USA Archery's Interim CEO Rod Menzer was present to accept the award. USA Archery was also recognized as an inspiration and leader in social media across all World Archery member associations.
World Archery President Prof. Dr. Ugur Erdener was re-elected unanimously for a fourth four-year term. In committee elections, USA Archery's National Events Manager Sheri Rhodes was elected to the Para Archery Committee for a four-year term. USA's Robert Smith was elected chairperson of the Finance and Audit Board for a four-year term and Don Rabska was also named to the Technical Committee through 2021.
World Archery's Executive Board also passed five bylaws, including the continued ban of alcohol in competition, despite a recent update from the World Anti-Doping Agency removing alcohol from the banned substances list. World Archery President Prof. Dr. Ugur Erdener commented: "The fight against doping is paramount to protecting the integrity of our sport and I'm happy that the World Archery Executive Board has approved the continued ban on alcohol."
Additionally, the time allowed for individual alternate shooting in para archery competition was increased from 20 to 30 seconds.
World Archery also shared that passed bylaws include a new ruling that "during matchplay in all disciplines, an athlete or team will no longer be forced to shoot their final arrow if unable to win the match - although it would be down to that athlete or team to make the decision."
A new format for one-arrow shoot offs in individual match play will be tested in 2018. "If both recurve athletes shoot a 10 or compound athletes shoot an X10 with their shoot-off arrow, a second tiebreaker arrow will be shot - with the winner of the second tiebreaker decided on which arrow lands closest to the middle of the target."
The qualification system for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was also approved in principle, but will not be published until after it is finalized by the International Olympic Committee.
Other decisions that Congress passed included a motion to expand the number of teams advancing to the elimination phase of a tournament from 16 to 24. Deferred until 2019 in favor of additional research and analysis was an indoor archery proposal to introduce a new proportional target face for compound archers.
Information attributed to World Archery Communications.
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