Sadly this is the final evidence that Archery GB performance unit needs a thorough a comprehensive review, what individuals have been saying on this forum and in other places has come to pass. for at least the last two and probably three Olympic cycles AGB has made a dreadful mess of the Olympic
recurve pathway and performance squad. It is time to completely re think. It is absolutely clear that the previous performance director did not have a clue, too early to tell if her replacement is any more capable. Equally clear need to clear out existing coaches no matter their past glories. A complete rethink is required.
With the loss of the funding, what PU is there to review? Funding was coming into the sport before the IOC announcement in Singapore, July 2005, that London would host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games but that announcement elicited not only an increase in funding but also a superb climate within the UK for the development of the competitive sport and as a consequence, the development of all forms of archery activity for sport and leisure in the UK. It is hard to imagine a better environment as a platform for the development of archery within the UK than was presented at that time unless it might be that the IOC itself were to have extended the PU's own determination and assessment of GBR archers to one that included the right to assess and determine Olympic medal winners. The failure, as I see it, of AGB to move the competitive sport forward, the failure to properly develop a modern cogent and inclusive sporting structure has now placed GBR
recurve freestyle target archery into a very long period in the international wilderness. As I have already previously stated on the pages of this forum; the horse has bolted and carried off the funding in its saddlebags and the only strategy that I have ever believed that AGB have had has been one of preferentialism and archery with fingers crossed.
But, hey ho, spilt milk and all of that. What to do now. The skills required to accurately shoot a bow have not changed as a result of the loss of funding. They are still there to be learned by anyone who cares to walk that path and I believe that the path is worth the walk. The good news at least is that perhaps in a few corners of the land those skills might flourish and be nurtured without the all powerful and crushing hand of a central and, imho, self serving PU. The woods are perhaps the best place to really learn those skills anyway and the UK does have a very excellent record and tradition to be found there. Target Archery can now only be left to the cliques who have dominated it for so long anyway and the reality is that the loss of funding in that regard will change nothing of substance.
The nation is committed to a programme of sporting excellence via the Olympic pathways and both Lottery and Exchequer funding is invested in that. Nationally there is the belief that exemplars of sporting excellence have positive effects in areas from national pride and unity to individual issues concerning health and self esteem. On all those fronts the failure of AGB to maintain its funding and to present a full and credible challenge for medals at Rio this last summer, despite the investments into the sport over many years, also represents AGB's failure to engage with the broader but no less important functions of the funding system, and that is disgraceful. The disunity and petty jealousies between and within archery disciplines, the rank favouritism and preferentialism, the closed avenues for advancement within the sport to whole sections of the community are what I see as defining the sport in the UK and the only beneficiaries of the cessation of funding are those who wish to see the continuation of more of the same. And in the light of the quality of the AGB handling, so far, of the news from initial announcement to latest edited version, there is absolutely no reason to really think that things will change.
It might be an idea to monitor ebay for archery equipment bargains being offered in the area of Shropshire. You never know.