Archery remains under lockdown until July – at least

Archery, along with almost all other sports, remains on hiatus around the world, as the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in a sustaind lockdown in most Western countries.

Almost all clubs and ranges remain closed, although a handful of international teams have continued to train. The lockdown looks set to keep the sport closed through to the end of June 2020 at the least; as of this writing. It is also clear that social distancing measures will have to be introduced to the sport on its return for some time, perhaps until a vaccine is finally found at some point in the near future.

Officially, World Archery have set a date of 1st July as a return to the sport, by indicating that recognition of national events will continue after that date, if held to appropriate health standards, and that records and performance awards will be able to be claimed. However, there will be no international events at all, until September at the very least.

The last major world event of the year, the World Archery Field Championships scheduled to take place in Yankton, South Dakota in September, remains on the calendar for now. However, almost all national and international competitions scheduled to go ahead this year remain under threat of postponement or cancellation. There are also questions over the indoor season restarting in November and December as normal.

World Archery has launched new projects during this period, including an indoor 'Beat The Outbreak' league, a remote international archery tournament, the Lockdown Knockout, which starts for compound archers with live streaming from 9th May.