European Archery Championships Legnica 2018 will begin on Monday, but already on Sunday an important event took place. The President was elected at the World Archery Europe Elective Congress.
Legnica has become the capital of European archery in the last days of August. Since Tuesday 331 athletes of 43 countries will participate in the European Championships. There are Olympic medallists and top athletes of the World Ranking among them. On Sunday the World Archery Europe Elective Congress was held.
For the fourth consecutive time Mario Scarzella (Italy) was elected as President of World Archery Europe with 41 out of a total of 42 votes (one abstained). Hakan Cakiroglu (Turkey) will remain the Vice-President for the next four years. There is a significant change as Marinella Pisciotti resigned and Alessandra Colasante (Italy) is the new Secretary General. Darko Uidl (Croatia) was elected in Executive Board, while Maria Kirillipoulou (Greece) is to enter Youth Commission.
Scarzella in an interview shared his views on recent years in archery when he has been the WAE President. He encourages organizers to bring the events to the picturesque market squares and central city spots. – The concept of archery really developed in the recent years. We changed the rules; the visibility is different. It is no more just about shooting. The competition format was adjusted and we brought archery to television so that many spectators can see archery while in the past it was not like that. The main goal is to bring the finals or the archery events to the city centres, to the places where visibility is really high. The number of archers grew in the last years and the level of our competitions rose, as well
– the WAE President said.
The Italian praised Local Organising Committee after two events they prepared. Although, the European Archery Championships will be open on Monday, he expects the competition to be successful. – On Saturday we had an Executive Board Meeting, on Sunday there was the World Archery Europe Elective Congress. Both events were perfectly organized by the Local Organising Committee. Today, I cannot tell my opinion on the Championships as they have not started yet. However, with the attendance of the previous archery events here, in Legnica, and having seen the Organizing Committee, I am pretty sure the Championships will be successfully organized – he explained.
The WAE President is fond of the idea to organise the finals in the market square. – I am mainly satisfied of this because it is one of our priorities and that is what we asked several Organising Committees for, to have the finals or at least one event in the town, where people can see archery. Event people that have not known archery before. And from media point of view, this is a great success. For TV broadcasting, having the finals not in a normal venue but in the market square or another central spot, it is an upgrade – he said.
The Opening Ceremony of the European Archery Championships Legnica 2018 will take place in the courtyard of the Akademia Rycerska building on Monday (August 27). It will begin at 6 PM. However, already on Monday many teams took part in an official training. The venue is perfectly prepared and ready to host the best European archers.
