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South African National Archery Championships Granted World Ranking
Added: (Wed Feb 22 2006)
In a move that will place Cape Town in the international sporting spotlight, the SA National Archery Championships and All African Archery Championships have been granted world ranking by the international body FITA.
This will be the biggest internationally recognized archery event held on the African continent.
The championships are to be held between the 31 March - 4 April 2006 at the Turfhall Sports Complex in Athlone, Cape Town, the facility built for the 2004 Cape Town Olympic bid.
More than 100 of the countries archers will be competing in the five day event against the continents top archers.
Made possible by the partnership between the City of Cape Town’s sports authorities and the Western Province Archery Association, some 18 African countries have been invited to participate in the games.
FITA, the international governing body of the sport have appointed two international judges and one continental judge to join the South African judges officiating at the event.
Andrew Omalla of Uganda, who has over 10 years experience as a continental judge will be assisting Konrad von Ermelo and David Wallace, one of the highest ranking international judges in archery.
According to Barbara Manning, secretary of the SA Archery Association, "the process to be granted world ranking is a complex one, where facilities and organisational abilities must meet very high international standards"
“This goes a long way in showing the world the sporting capabilities we have, especially in light of the participation of members of the archery section of the South African Society for the Physically Disabled “, she added.
“The world ranking status of the event enables African archers to gain world ranking points without having to travel to an international event with similar status. From these points gained archers are ranked against their counterparts in the rest of the world.
One of the goals of our top archers is to feature on the FITA's world ranking list which consists of the the top 50 archers world wide and the top 3 archers per continent.”, concluded Manning.