Archery, a practice of shooting arrows using bows has been used for hunting and combat, It has become a sport form in modern times. And it is one of the events in the 2008 Beijing Summer Paralympics, the 13th edition of the Summer Paralympics, which will take place in September 2008 from 6th to 17th.
Competitive archery involves shooting arrows aiming at a target from a set distance or distances. It is a game of precision, and involves mental as well as physical stability. Target archery competitions are held either indoors or outdoors. Indoor distances are 18 m and 25 m and Outdoor distances range from 30 m to 90 m. Competition is divided into parts called 'end' of 3 or 6 arrows. At the end of each section, the participants walk to the target to score and get back their arrows. Archers have an allotted time span within which they are supposed to shoot their arrows.
Targets have 10 equally spaced concentric rings, which have values ranging from 1 to 10 allotted to them. The inner 10 ring at times is referred as the X ring. This becomes the 10 point ring at indoor events of competitive archery. It plays the vital role of a tiebreaker, in an outdoor competition, with the archer shooting the most number of X winning the event. Archers calculate their scores for each end by adding the scores they have scored with each arrow.
The archery event in the Paralympics is a revised version of the sport of archery for sportspersons with a disability. The competitors in this sport include people from the amputee, cerebral palsy, wheelchair and les autres groups. The International Archery Federation has allowed some minor changes in its rules for Paralympic archery. There are three categories- two for wheelchair athletes and one for the standing ones. First started in the Stroke Mandeville Games for the physically challenged in 1948, archery was part of the first Summer Paralympic in 1960 held at Rome and is an integral part of every Summer Paralympic Games till date. More than 37 countries have active participation in Paralympic archery.
The archery events in the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games in Beijing will take place from 10th to 15th September.
Flightshotelstours.com offers online information on Archery in 2008 Beijing Summer Paralympic Sports.
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