Archery

Held at Lord's Cricket Ground, the Archery competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games will call for pinpoint precision and nerves of steel.

Archery dates back around 10,000 years, when bows and arrows were first used for hunting and warfare, before it developed as a competitive activity in medieval England. A tense and testing sport that requires immense reserves of skill and nerve, Archery is now practised in more than 140 countries around the world.

Competition dates

July 27 - Aug 3

Competition venue

Lord's Cricket Ground

Number of medal events

4 - men's Individual, women's Individual, men's Team, and women's Team.

Number of competitors

128 (64 men and 64 women)

Each country is limited to six athletes (three men and three women), which equates to three athletes in each individual event and one team of three athletes in each team event.

Field of play

Athletes shoot from the shooting line to the target, 70m away. For the elimination rounds, there are two targets, with each archer or team assigned to one target.

History of Archery at the Olympics

Archery made its Olympic debut at Paris 1900, was dropped from the programme after the London 1908 Games, and then returned for a single appearance in 1920. After a 52-year gap, the sport was reintroduced at Munich 1972 and has remained on the Olympic programme ever since.

The basics

The object of the sport is simple: to shoot arrows as close to the centre of a target as possible. Olympic Archery targets are 122cm in diameter, with the gold ring at the centre (worth a maximum 10 points) measuring just 12.2cm. Athletes shoot at the target from a distance of 70m. Athletes compete with recurve bows, distinctive as the limbs curve outwards at the top. Men and women compete separately, both as individuals and in teams of three.

Competition format

All four Archery events are played in a head-to-head elimination format.

At the start of the competition all athletes take place in a ranking round. Athletes must shoot 72 arrows in 12 phases of six arrows each, with each athlete allowed four minutes per phase. The total score of all 72 arrows determines the rankings of each athlete. These are used to make the seedings for both the Individual and the Team events.

Officials

Scoring judges sit in a protected area or blind behind the targets, and come out to score when shooting is complete. Sitting at the opposite end of the range by the shooting line are two spotters, who record each archer’s arrow values with the aid of a telescope.

Keys to success

Archery is a tense and testing sport that requires immense reserves of skill and nerve. The winning athlete will remain cool under the enormous pressure that an Olympic competition brings.

Jargon buster

Boss - the target, usually a square black block made of compacted foam, to which the target face is attached.

Bowman - an athlete.

Draw - the act of pulling back the bow string in preparation for shooting.

Nock - a notch at the end of an arrow that attaches to the bow string.