Leipzig World Championships Open with a Colourful Ceremony

The City of Leipzig, Germany is welcoming the 44th Outdoor Archery World Championships from 7 to 15 July. The event has started today with official practice and equipment inspection. The day ended with the Opening Ceremony taking place at 5:30 pm on the competition final field: the Festwiese situated between the Central Stadium and the Arena Leipzig.  Almost 80 countries with a total of 530 archers have gathered in the German city to take part in this important competition with a view for recurve archers to qualifying for next year’s Olympic Games. This competition will indeed decide on part of the places (individual and team) won by countries to take part in the Olympic archery event in Beijing.   The Opening Ceremony started at 5:30 pm with an official welcome. This preceded the introduction of the German flag borne by volunteers and FITA flag borne by international archers Park Sung-Hyun (KOR), Sofia Goncharova (RUS), Morgan Lundin (SWE) and Florian Flotto (GER). According to tradition, the nations then paraded one by one, the host country being the last one to march.   All Officials, Honorary Guests, Judges, spectators and athletes were officially welcomed to the Opening Ceremony and the public announcers introduced Mr Josef Ambacher, President of the Organizing Committee (OC) and of the German Archery Federation (DSB).   The Mayor of Leipzig, Mr Burkhard Jung, thanked FITA and DSB for the great gift they offer his city to host this competition: “We thank you for your trust in the city of Leipzig to organize the 44th Archery World Championships. Leipzig has a tradition of trade, sciences and sports. I wish all the archers a fair, fascinating and moving competition”, he declared.  Before declaring the 44th World Outdoor Archery Championships open, FITA President Dr Ugur Erdener reminded the audience that the last time Germany organized such an archery competition dated back to 1979 and that many changes have taken place for our sport since that time. “I am very happy to come back in this country. These are very important Championships for all the archers and I wish them the best possible results”, he said.   The speeches part was followed by the FITA and German flags’ raising accompanied by their respective anthems. Then, the representatives of the athletes (German Andrea Weihe) and the judges (Chief Judge Sergio Font) pronounced the Athletes and Judges Oaths.   The opening ended with a musician of Berlin and composer of the competition’s official song, Matthias Staller, singing “Let Your Eyes Smile”. During the song 5,000 balloons of the five continental colours were released in the sky and five archers shot one arrow each on five targets also representing the continents. This special show closed the ceremony.   The competition starts tomorrow at 9:00 am with the qualifications for Compound Men and Women   FITA Communication