620+ to shoot in largest World Archery Championships in history

A record number of athletes from a record number of countries will compete at the upcoming World Archery Championships – which will be the largest world tournament of any time in World Archery’s history.

Copenhagen was awarded the right to host the 2015 World Archery Championships in 2010, shortly after successfully holding the Archery World Cup Final in the tourist-centric Nyhavn Canal, at the end of 2009. 

Sports Event Denmark said, at that time, that they were committed to something larger, iconic and more spectacular, expanding Copenhagen’s brand as an attractive sporting destination. The event will take place in front of Christiansborg Palace, the home of the Danish Parliament, providing a beautiful backdrop for millions of followers of the world-class competition around the world. 

As final entries come in for the upcoming World Archery Championships – an event that includes the primary qualifier for archery at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games – that commitment looks well on track. 

Over the four competition disciplines, 96 national federations had registered a total of 623 athletes to compete. 

Since 2005, nations are capped to registering a maximum of three athletes per each of the four competition categories. 

The previous highest recorded entry for a World Archery Championships was at Turin 2011, the last primary Olympic qualifier, where 562 athletes from 84 nations competed. 

The recurve men’s event at Copenhagen alone will feature 229 archers contesting just three medals, making it one of the toughest podiums to climb in international sport. 

It also marks the first time a single competition category has broken the 200-athlete mark at a World Archery event.

Competition will be no less fierce in the two recurve team events, which is each nation’s first opportunity to win Rio quota places. Sixty-three recurve men’s and 45 recurve women’s teams will contest just eight available spots to the next Olympic Games in each division. 

“The proof of archery’s growth at the international level is in the numbers,” said World Archery President Prof Dr Ugur Erdener. “In both participation and the competition level of our elite archers.”

Olympic Champion Ki Bo Bae from Korea increased the women’s ranking round world record by four points to 686 during the Universiade held at the start of July 2015. It was a record that had stood for over a decade.

“It is a universal approach to developing the sport from the ground up that drives this growth.” 

“Working with our member federations through the second stage of our World Archery Plan, we aim to make the sport strong in each country and archery available to all. We are on the right track, and that is evident in the number of countries that can now field a competitive team at a world championships,” added Prof Dr Erdener. 

“Whoever takes to the finals field at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, we’re promised an exciting finale to the largest World Archery Championships in history.” 

It is possible that the entry number may further increase in the lead up to the championships, although member associations must pay a fine to enter athletes after the final deadline. 

The World Archery Championships also include World Archery Congress, which are held in the city and immediately precede each edition of the two-yearly event. 

In 2015, elections take place for the positions of World Archery Vice President and Executive Board Member, and throughout the organisation’s committees, while member associations will vote on a number of motions to amend the World Archery Constitution and Rulebook.

The motions include a proposal to reaffirm World Archery’s policy on having only active member associations by making requirements of national competitor participation and good practice a part of the World Archery’s constitution. 

A number of changes supporting the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020 will also be discussed, including strengthening of the constitutional clauses against discrimination and the fight for clean sport. 

World Archery Congress runs on 24/25 July 2015 and the Copenhagen 2015 World Archery Championships begins on 26 July and finishes on 2 August. 

Key competition dates are: 31 July – Olympic team qualifying tournament; 1 August – compound finals, and 2 August – recurve finals.