Executive board updates mission and vision statements to guide post-pandemic planning

World Archery’s executive board has approved an update to the federation’s mission and vision statements during its virtual meeting held on 12 December 2020.

The new vision reads as follows.

A world in which everyone has the opportunity to practise, engage with and enjoy the important Olympic sport of archery.

The existing mission has been extended to recognise the importance of competition and promotion in achieving the vision as follows.

World Archery’s mission is:

• To empower its member associations to make archery a leading sport around the world.
• To build and regulate an event ecosystem.
• To grow awareness of and engagement with the sport.

These updated mission and vision statements will be used to guide the development of a new strategic plan for the federation as communities around the world emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. This plan will be underpinned by principles of fiscal responsibility, development and sustainability.

A draft of the strategy is expected to be presented to the executive board for approval at its meeting in March and then taken to congress next September.

World Archery President Prof Dr Ugur Erdener said: “This clear strategic direction will help pave a positive future for World Archery and the sport as communities around the globe recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“By focusing on the three key pillars of our connected competition products, building exposure and a concerted effort to grow strong and proactive Member Associations, we can ensure that archery continues to make the same positive progress over the next decade as it did in the last.”

Rule changes

Eleven bylaw changes to the World Archery Rulebook were accepted by the board to come into effect on 1 January 2021, most notably the removal of the double-shoot-off.

Currently, the regulation states that a match tiebreak is won by the archer whose arrow lands closest to the middle – except if both recurve archers shoot a 10 or both compound archers shoot an X, in which case a second arrow is shot. Tiebreaks will now revert to being a single-arrow closest-to-the-centre shoot-off.

The change was supported by the athletes committee, which is represented on the executive board by chair Naomi Folkard.

Alterations to the process for awarding world ranking status to a tournament were accepted and the board added the capacity for World Archery to organise virtual world championships to the rules. The first of these two updates corresponds with a revision to the world ranking event requirements, which will come into effect when the current temporary document put in place for events held during the pandemic expires.

The remaining bylaws concerned minor changes to the para, field and 3D rules. Full details will be available in the World Archery Rulebook.

Additional topics covered at the meeting included the budget for the upcoming calendar year, an extension to the appointment of Roman Suda as head of classification, a progress report on the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the timeline for congress.