Paralympic Archery

Sport Summary:

Paralympic Archery was one of the original Paralympic Sports contested in Rome in 1960.

It is a test of accuracy, strength and concentration.

The sport is open to athletes with a physical disability (including spinal injury, cerebral palsy, amputee and les autres) in three functional classes.

The sport comprises individual and team events, standing and wheelchair competitions.

From a set distance, competitors shoot at a target marked with ten scoring zones.

Paralympic competition follows the rules of FITA (the international governing body for able-bodied Archery) with a few minor modifications.

Paralympic Events to be contested at Beijing 2008:

At Paralympic level Archers compete in the following disciplines:

  • Individual Compound;
  • Individual Recurve; Team Recurve.

Click here to view the nomination criteria for the 2008 Australian Paralympic Team in pdf.

Rules & Equipment:

At Paralympic level, archers shoot at a 122cm target set at a distance of 70m.

There are qualifying rounds followed by an elimination round, culminating in a final round of eight archers.

Classification:

The Archery classification system is divided into three classes -

  • Archery Standing (ARST),
  • Archery Wheelchair 1 (ARW1) and
  • Archery Wheelchair 2 (ARW2)..

The major difference between ARW1 and ARW2 is the amount of functional ability the athlete posses in their upper body.

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