Archery association excited about resumption
ZIMBABWE Archery Association secretary-general, Iona Bartosz, says they are excited to resume their activities following Government’s announcement low-risk sport could now take place.
Archery is one of the several disciplines classified as low-risk and Bartosz welcomed the decision by the authorities.
“It’s absolutely fantastic news. Obviously, we are waiting for SRC for the paperwork to say what requirements we all require,’’ said Bartosz.
“We actually put through a suggestion to SRC and the Ministry of what we needed as a sports association in order to operate during these times, obviously, the social distancing, physical distancing that we require.
“Normally, we would have two or three archers on a target but we are now going to go to one person per target and, obviously, all the mandatory testing beforehand, temperature checking, sanitising all that everybody is familiar with. “We won’t be holding any competitions, as yet, we just want to start the practising side. So, that’s one person per target and no unnecessary movement of other people on that range during the time when somebody is there. “Coaches, obviously, being two metres away from their athlete instructing them on what they need to correct.
“But it is fantastic news that we should be able to start out soon.’’
Bartosz said they also need to work on the scoring technique now that they have to make adjustments to ensure safety for everyone.
And, the fact that their international federation has put competitions on hold until September, also gives them the leeway to work out their way back to competing.
“My concern at the moment is we need to sort out the scoring technique, how we are going to do that because one person does the scoring for the opposite person?
“We want to clarify that before we do any competitions,” Bartosz said.
Archery is not the only association taking a cautious approach in resuming their programmes as other disciplines are also focusing mainly on training before they move on to staging competitions.