Efforts on to get archery back for Birmingham CWG

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 17

World Archery and several national archery federations have begun working to get archery included in the sports programme for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The English city was given the rights to host the Games after Durban withdrew citing financial constraints.

Archery was part of the programme when India hosted the Games in 2010 but was not included in the 2014 Games in Glasgow. It won’t feature in the 2018 Games, to be held in Australia later this year, as well.

World Archery held a meeting in Mexico City last October to discuss how to get the sport back in the Commonwealth Games. It formed a Commonwealth Committee “to encourage/support cities seeking to host the Games to include archery and to raise the profile of archery among the Commonwealth countries”. 

Susanne Womersley and Carole Hicks (Oceania), Hilda Gibson, Dion Buhagiar (Europe), Anil Kamineni (Asia), Al Wills (Americas) and Selwyn Moskovits (Africa) are part of the committee.

World Archery secretary general Tom Dielen has already met the Birmingham representatives to consider including archery. Hilda Gibson, the international relations lead of Archery GB, is expected to take the lead in this matter. “In the New Year, we will continue to work with Commonwealth Games England and Birmingham City Council to secure the inclusion of archery in the sports programme for the Games,” she wrote to World Archery officials.

Anil Kamineni, a former secretary general of the Archery Association of India (AAI), confirmed that both World Archery and the committee are working towards archery’s inclusion in the 2022 programme.  “World Archery has made a committee. Dielen is doing all he can to get archery back. Even Archery GB is actively involved to get the sport on the programme. In fact, we tried very hard to get archery included in the Gold Coast event too,” Kamineni told The Tribune.

Kamineni said he was very hopeful of archery featuring in the Birmingham Games.