Sport-by-sport - Archery
Simon Terry
Getty images
| Chairman | Dave Harrison | |
|---|---|---|
| Chief Executive | David Sherratt | |
| Performance Director | Sara Symington |
Sport Profile
| Funding Award (2009-2013) | £4,408,000 |
| Best London 2012 Performance | Eliminated at last 16 stage |
| Athletes on World Class Performance Programme | 18 |
| Past Performances | Olympic Games, Athens, 2004: Bronze (1) Alison Williamson (individual FITA Olympic round - 70m) |
| Press Officer | Peter Jones |
| Press Officer tel | 02086 249 467 / 07870 687 992 |
| Website | http://www.archerygb.org |
| National governing body | Archery GB |
“The funding made available to Archery GB by the National Lottery, Exchequer and Team 2012 has enabled us to develop fantastic facilities at our headquarters, with facilities that others look on with envy. We now have some high tech equipment that helps us work on all aspects of the archers' technique, and we have excellent indoor and outdoor shooting facilities, all designed to help give our archers the edge over their rivals as we continue our meticulous preparations for London 2012.”
Sara Symington, Archery Performance Director
Archery received a significant increase in investment for London 2012, from £2.8million for the four year Beijing cycle, to more than £4million for London, to reflect the medal potential and development programme within the sport.
This money has been invested in supporting the whole squad, which has been whittled down to the six athletes who will represent Team GB at London 2012.
Among them is Alison Williamson, who will be competing at an incredible sixth Olympic Games. Alison won a bronze medal in Athens in 2004 and has been supported since 2001 with an Athlete Personal Award, funded entirely by The National Lottery, allowing her to devote more of her time to training and competition.
UK Sport has also helped Archery create a heated and covered outdoor range at their Lilleshall base. This allows athletes to practice all year round regardless of the vagaries of the British weather.
The UK Sport Research and Innovation team have been busy too, in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University’s Centre for Sports Engineering and Research, they have devised a number of clever tools to support the journey to London 2012.
The first of these is a simple feedback for athletes training at their local facilities away from the full support of the World Class Program. Project Videplay is a video feedback device that uses cameras and a laptop to record training activity and simply replay each shot. This allows Archers to review their stance and arrow flight before making the next shot, without having to move from their position or put down their bow.
In addition, Archery GB has been supplied with a bespoke device that enables archers to test their arrows for uniformity. This machine is accurately calibrated in order to ensure that the arrows can be grouped with others of similar characteristics. The idea is that this enables the archer to achieve a higher consistency of shot accuracy and therefore reduce the chances of dropping points from irregular arrow flight.
UK Sport also helped bring the Archery World Cup Final to Edinburgh in 2010, this was one of 118 major sporting events supported by The National Lottery funded Major Events Programme aimed at helping British athletes prepare for London 2012.
Did You Know?
Alison Williamson is set to become only the third ever British athlete to compete at six Olympic Games. Javelin thrower Tessa Sanderson and fencer Bill Hosykns are the others.
*Accurate as of May 2012
Selected athletes:
Alison Williamson
Amy Oliver
Naomi Folkard
Larry Godfrey
Simon Terry
Alan Wills
Find out more about EIS support in Archery.



