Executive Board awards 2021 youth championships to Australian city of Perth

Perth was awarded hosting rights for the 2021 World Archery Youth Championships during a meeting of the World Archery Executive Board on 6 December 2019.

The city will become the first in Australia to host an archery world championships since Canberra held the field event in 2002 and Adelaide had the senior world championships in 1987.

Sydney, host of the Olympic Games in 2000, will organise a tournament on the calendar of the 2020 Indoor Archery World Series this January.

Perth was selected ahead of Dublin, Ireland and Wroclaw, Poland.

The Executive Board also approved the rules for the 2020 Hyundai Archery World Cup, which introduce a new Olympic wildcard qualifier for the circuit final and increase stage prize money.

A change to the schedule of the 2020 World Archery Field Championships in Yankton was accepted. The junior team events were removed in favour of junior and senior mixed team competitions.

The Archery Association of India’s suspension was upheld and Tonga was provisionally suspended pending the organisation of a general assembly and submission of minutes to World Archery.

Rules for run archery, based on those currently in use by World Archery Europe, were adopted for inclusion in the rulebook.

Other bylaws passed included a limit on the number of officials a team can have at an event – now 50% of a team’s athletes – and the deadline for team changes cut from one hour to 15 minutes before the start of a session.

These changes will come into effect on 15 January 2020.

New compositions for the Finance and Audit and Electoral Boards were accepted.

Rolf Lind and Hilda Gibson are to be joined by David Tan on the Finance and Audit Board; Lind will act as chair.

Paul Paulsen, Guo Bei and Kazi Rajib Uddin Ahmed Chapol will form the new Electoral Board, which was introduced at the last World Archery Congress, whose role it will be to evaluate candidatures for elected positions within the federation.

The Executive Board also passed new guidelines for Jury of Appeals, judges and classifiers, and received updates on safeguarding, broadcast and major event planning.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers was appointed auditors for a further two years.

The meeting was held via remote conference call in line with World Archery’s ongoing sustainability efforts.

World Archery President Prof Dr Ugur Erdener said: “We were very pleased to receive three exciting bids for the next World Archery Youth Championships. We are excited to be taking a championships back to Australia, a country with a long history of successful international archers.” 

“I congratulate them on a comprehensive winning bid that promises an exciting tournament experience for our young athletes and a world-class event for the host city – with an opportunity to build a strong legacy for the sport.”

A conference call for member associations to explain the newly accepted bylaws will be held on Wednesday 11 December. Contact Siret Luik for more information.