On top of the world

Hello, and welcome to Bow International 134, where we’ve just returned from the Hyundai Archery World Championships, the biggest and most spectacular ever held, in the small-but-mighty cathedral town of ’s-hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. Held every two years, every other Worlds has a special feature, the single terrifying team qualifying match that decides a large majority of the Olympic places available for the following year.

The immense news for UK archers is that Great Britain won both their matches, which means that GBR qualified a full six spots for Tokyo 2020, first time out. This is an astonishing achievement, with GBR the only non-asian nation to do so. The World Championships qualifying match is so vital for nations that it literally changes the course of careers and the destinies of national teams. It was a privilege to be able to watch it. There must be more than a few archers with Olympic ambitions out there with their imaginations fired right up.

One of the nicest parts was seeing how many young people turned up, how widespread the media was, and how archery is increasingly moving into mainstream sports

coverage across the world. A lot of this is due to the tireless work of the World Archery communications team, and the money, effort and countless man hours spent developing the TV and video news reporting side of things. But nothing quite beats holding a major tournament on home soil, where people can watch the stars of the day and get excited. I would dearly love to see a major tournament held in the UK – there have been moves to hold a World Cup stage here in a major city, but it’s not happened quite yet. Most people have a single, casual moment that excites them into curiosity around the sport (for me, it was watching the Beijing Olympics on TV). The more people that get that moment in front of them, the more people will be getting involved.

See you on the shooting line