Archery loses UK Sport Olympic funding...

ben tarrow

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bimble

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Ironman
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And an announcement on the ArcheryGB website about the decision by UK Sport - ArcheryGB
 

ben tarrow

Well-known member
Oh dear...
Am I being unfair, or do all of Neil Armitage's public statements sound like they've been bought from spin4u.com or wherever Tony Blair and other top CEOs who are up a creek without a paddle get their speeches?

we work closely with our partners blah blah blah preparing for the challenges of affordability blah blah created efficiencies blah
 

bimble

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well... it's not like they were going to say, "we're screwed, we're so screwed!!" :hissyfit:

though I noted a complaint from one the badminton players that, like archery, they to had achieved what they had been asked to, and had then lost all their funding... meanwhile cycling had over achieved and lost ?4m...
 

ben tarrow

Well-known member
Oopsie, I think that's called polishing a turd.
I love the Archerygb.org headline
The funding announcement made today by UK Sport is in line with Archery GB's long term strategy for developing the sport as a whole.

So AGB PLANNED to have no funding ???!!!
 

Whitehart

Well-known member
"The funding announcement made today by UK Sport is in line with Archery GB's long term strategy for developing the sport as a whole". - Really, they asked for this to happen?

Cheers Ben beat me to it
 

jonUK76

Member
Surely they've gone with the wrong heading? That can't seriously be what they mean to say, can it?? If it is not a mistake, what does it say about their long term strategy?
 

Whitehart

Well-known member
"Our focus is to achieve a podium position at the World Championships in October, which will allow us to open up another conversation with UK Sport and move into the area of probability rather than possibility in securing medals in Tokyo."

Since the increase in the selection scores 665 men 655 women I think we have one archer that has achieved 1 qualifying score. Lets hope the weather is kind next year.

Glass half full - surely this opens the door to all those archers bubbling under the current system with selection ambitions - work hard get the scores, it's not as if AGB can be choosy.
 

Whitehart

Well-known member
well... it's not like they were going to say, "we're screwed, we're so screwed!!" :hissyfit:

though I noted a complaint from one the badminton players that, like archery, they to had achieved what they had been asked to, and had then lost all their funding... meanwhile cycling had over achieved and lost ?4m...
Sport UK is about medals and this says they don't believe going forward Archery in it's current state has that potential.

The Badminton is puzzling especially as we have representation in Dubai in the final event of the year (like the tennis event at the O2) and were so close to achieving more at Rio. They are going to appeal.
 

Eluned

Member
"The funding announcement made today by UK Sport is in line with Archery GB's long term strategy for developing the sport as a whole". - Really, they asked for this to happen?

Cheers Ben beat me to it
Yup, it does read, in the light of the funding statements from UKSport, that the long term plan from AGB for target archery is for everyone to be competing from wheelchairs. Surely this cannot be so. The statement itself, even at the very end, only serves to once more demonstrate what a pig's ear of a mess the governing body is with regard to what it communicates and understands about the international and Olympic sport that it is a member of.

As for the question; "Really, they asked for this to happen?" The answer must be "Yes, they have been begging for it". It has been as obvious as the bits on a bulldog that this loss of funding would be the inevitable consequence of the culture and policies that have been followed within the sport for decades. You were told! Old Bloke told you this would happen. SPDixon told you this would happen. the mystery is that a community of people allegedly dedicated to a competitive sporting activity that is about precision can be in such denial and delusion about itself. A recipe for Losers if ever there was one.

How solvent will AGB now be when close to ?2 out of every ?3 comes from outside funding? How will future GBR target archers be funded? Will they now have to self fund? Who will fund the coaches and team managers and the rest of the court of King Caractacus? If there is no funding for coaches then from where will the expertise come from? What, now, is the purpose of the so called "National Series"? Why would anyone bother to run 720's if these questions cannot be realistically addressed?

Why would anyone make the level of commitment towards future international GBR representation at Target Archery when there is no realistic end game to aim for? The AGB community in all its denial and intolerances and exclusive prejudices has walked into this and I think that even now its membership cannot grasp the reality of implications upon the sport into the future that this loss of funding may well mean. Shoot your Yorks and Herefords because there is now no longer a reason to shoot anything else.

Meanwhile, an insight into activity at AGB GCHQ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRJby3PCfbo

LOL
 

LMK

New member
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.
 

Eluned

Member
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.
 
It might be an idea to monitor ebay for archery equipment bargains being offered in the area of Shropshire. You never know.
Funny you should say that, one of our members has just bought a set of Win & Win limbs off eBay and the seller was none other than Larry Godfrey.
 

KidCurry

Well-known member
AIUK Saviour
Sport UK is about medals and this says they don't believe going forward Archery in it's current state has that potential.

The Badminton is puzzling especially as we have representation in Dubai in the final event of the year (like the tennis event at the O2) and were so close to achieving more at Rio. They are going to appeal.
I think that badminton is indicative of why archery was dropped. Badminton stood on the olympic podium and still lost its funding, but going forward it's about lots of medals. UK Sport are interested in disciplines that have lots of medals on offer like athletics, rowing, canoeing. Archery could well have stood on the podium and still lost its' funding.
 
D

Deleted member 7654

Guest
Removing funding could be a good thing... get away from it being about money and medals, and get back to it being about fun, inclusivity and the promotion of the sport rather the promotion of narrow interests.
I know many will disagree, I'm just putting an alternative view.
Del
 

LMK

New member
I think that badminton is indicative of why archery was dropped. Badminton stood on the olympic podium and still lost its funding, but going forward it's about lots of medals. UK Sport are interested in disciplines that have lots of medals on offer like athletics, rowing, canoeing. Archery could well have stood on the podium and still lost its' funding.
What is most worrying is that UK Sport look at a number of factors one being the potential for future medal success, this is in part the sports individual programme and the potential within it. For UKS to drop funding they are making a judgment that the sport has neither the programme or pathway athletes to perform on a World competition stage.
 
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