Is Blind Archery a Paralympic sport or not?
BBS spoke to Ann Webb - 'Chairman Archery Section' at the IPC on 10 February 2006 and the situation thus far is:
"In essence, at the current time, blind archery is both an IBSA sport and an IPC Championship sport. Blind archers can take part in IPC sanctioned events. However, the Paralympics is a slightly different ball game. Blind Archery is not going to Beijing, because this Paralympic programme was decided on before the IPC had accepted blind archery as an IPC sport. For future planning, the archery section will apply to include blind archery but the ultimate decision maker is the IPC. Another application will go forward for 2012, this will be approved or not in 2008/9.”
At the moment it is anybody's guess as to this outcome, but it is likely that one large factor in choice will be the amount of blind archers participating in this sport around the world. So it is crucial that BBS keeps the IPC abreast of how the sport is developing in the UK and whether the numbers increase as a result of our 4 new regions and other grassroots activities."
