Target archery

Since archery involves the use of potentially lethal equipment, much attention is paid to order and safety.

An archer shoots either 3 or 6 arrows per end, depending on the type of round.

For indoor competition, under World Archery Federation rules this is 2 minutes for 3 arrows.

At all record status tournaments, archers must adhere to the AGB dress code.

The recognized dress is plain dark green and/or white, or 'club colours'.

However, any colour garments may be worn with the exception of blue denim, olive drab and camouflage pattern.

In a tournament, awards are normally split into categories according to bowstyle, gender and, for juniors, age.

Standard WA targets are marked with 10 evenly spaced concentric rings, which generally have score values from 1 through 10 assigned to them, except in outdoor Imperial rounds under AGB rules, where they have score values 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9.

Under WA rules, in major tournaments, after scoring, each hole is marked before arrows are retrieved.

Under AGB rules, and in some smaller tournaments, in the case of a bouncer, the archer must step off the shooting line and hold their bow in the air.

A judge then decides whether the archer is permitted to shoot a replacement arrow.

The targets contain 3 instances of the inner 5 rings of the 40-and-60-centimetre (16 and 24 in) faces arranged in a line or an equilateral triangle.

This is to stop competitors from damaging their own arrows by shooting a "robin hood".

Imperial rounds (measured in yards) are mainly shot in the United Kingdom.

The points are awarded as follows: 9 for a gold, 7 for a red, 5 for a blue, 3 for a black and 1 for a white.

[Source for tournament rounds: Dave Pritchard and Phil Hale, Bowmen Of The Tors: Handbook For New Archers DRP Publications, 2001] Archery was in the Olympics (and the 1906 Intercalated Games) between 1900, the second modern Olympics, and 1920.

The sport was dropped from the program because there were no internationally recognized rules for the sport- each Olympics through 1920 held a different type of event.

Since the 1984 Games at Los Angeles, South Korea has dominated the women's event.