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5 multisport events featuring archery to look out for in 2022

9 May 2022

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It was announced late last week that two of the largest multisport events on the calendar – the Asian Games and the University Games – would be postponed out of 2022 and held in 2023 instead, due to ongoing restrictions related to the pandemic in their host country, China.

Despite their dropping from the schedule, 2022 remains a bumper year for archery in multisport Games.

With the first stage of the 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Antalya, Turkey; the Invictus Games; and the South American Youth Games already behind us, we take a look – in date order – at some of the other major events featuring the sport during the outdoor season.

1. Southeast Asian Games

Dates: 12-23 May
Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

Postponed from 2021, the multisport event is going ahead in 2022 with archery taking place on 15-19 May. The sport was introduced back in 1977 at the ninth edition of the biennial games with six gold medals in both the men’s and women’s competitions available. Indonesia and Philippines won 11 of the 12 medals on offer.

Archery has been at every edition of the regional event since – with the exception of 1999 – with the last edition held in 2019 in Philippines.

Three years ago, Vietnam topped the medal table, edging out Thailand. Both countries won three of the standard 10 gold medals on offer in the recurve and compound individual, team and mixed team events. Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines also had athletes crest the podium.

Visit the official website.

2. Bolivarian Games

Dates: 24 June-5 July
Location: Valledupar, Colombia

Athletes from Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela will compete in a full 10-medal recurve and compound competition slate in Valledupar.

An important event for nations in the region and held every four years, the Colombian team are missing the third stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Paris to compete. This year’s host nation won 20 medals last time out, in 2017, including 12 of the 14 gold medals available.

The archery competitions will take place at the Galo Celedón field in the Panama neighbourhood on 1-4 July.

Visit the official website.

3. Mediterranean Games

Dates: 25 June-5 July
Location: Oran, Algeria

The Mediterranean Games take place every four years and feature the countries of the Mediterranean basin, bringing together the sports delegations of the National Olympic Committees from three continents – Africa, Asia and Europe – in more than 25 sports disciplines.

Archery’s competitions will be at the Stade Annexe Complexe Olympique on 26-28 June.

Visit the official website.

4. The World Games

Dates: 7-17 July
Location: Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Called by some ‘the Olympic Games for non-Olympic sports’, The World Games return to the global stage after five years including a 12-month postponement, following the previous edition in Wroclaw, Poland in 2017. The state of Alabama in the USA will host the games with target archery and field archery competitions taking place at Avondale Park in the city of Birmingham.

Field archery has featured on the programme of the World Games since 1985 and initially included the recurve and barebow bowstyles until compound was added in 1993. The compound competition was transformed into a target archery event in 2013.

The reigning field archery champions at the World Games are Amedeo Tonelli, Lisa Unruh, Istvan Kakas and Cinzia Noziglia. The reigning target archery champions are Stephan Hansen, Sara Lopez and the Danish compound mixed team.

“I feel like I'm part of something bigger than me,” said Lopez about the event. “I have never been in an event that big before in my life.”

Visit the official website.

5. South American Games

Dates: 1-15 October
Location: Asuncion, Paraguay

The South American Games will see recurve and compound competitions played out on 2-5 October, with the full five gold medals available in each. Colombia dominated the compound events at the last edition, which was held in Bolivia in 2018, winning all five golds, with the team’s recurve archers adding another two.

Visit the official website.