Archery
Is the sport, practice or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows. The word comes from the latin “arcus” that meaning bow. Historically, the bow has been used for hunting and combat. In modern times, archery is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity. A person who practices archery is typically called an archer or bowman. From prehistoric times the bow was a principal weapon of war and of the hunt throughout the world and recreational archery also was practiced along with military and among the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. One instance of the latter being the competition in which Odysseus won the hand of Penelope. The Huns, Seljuq Turks and Mongols horse archers dominated large parts of Asia for about 15 centuries. English longbowmen achieved glorious military victories in the “Hundred Years War” (1337–1453). On continental Europe the crossbow became widely used, especially in Switzerland and parts of Germany and France. In Europe the bow and arrow were displaced by firearms as a military weapon in the 16th century. English county troop levy consisted of one-third bowmen to two-thirds soldiers with guns and by century’s end the bow had been almost abandoned as a weapon.
Competition
The main forms of competitive archery are field archery and target archery. In field archery the competitors shoot arrows at different-sized targets set at varying and undetermined distances around a course. In target archery the competitors shoot a specified number of arrows at set distances at a target with established scoring values. The 1992 Olympic Games saw the debut of the FITA Olympic round, a championship round of single-elimination and head-to-head matches. FITA round distances are 90, 70, 50 and 30 metres for men and 70, 60, 50 and 30 metres for women. The standard FITA round for both men and women consisted of 36 arrows per round being shot at each distance.