27 août 2009 - Ardingo SCARZELLA (ITA): Suivre l'exemple de la Coupe du Monde

Following the World Cup path Lausanne – 27 August 2009  When an archery competition becomes a true event! The Archery World Cup concept has led by example and FITA is delighted that other organisers are following the path. As examples among others, the National Series organised by Archery GB (see our story on 15 May 2009), the World Games in Chinese Taipei and recently the Italian Championships.   We met with Ardingo SCARZELLA, (ITA) organiser of the Italian Championships in Torino and of the World Archery Championships 2011. The national championships were an impressive case study and prepared the future.   Ardingo, what was the organising goal of the Italian Championships? Apart from running a smooth competition for the archers, we set an objective to transform a normal archery competition into a real event, which could be followed not only by fans but also by anyone who wants to get closer to our sport for pure curiosity. It would not have sense to make efforts and use all kinds of resources to make archery more spectacular if there are no spectators to appreciate it.   How did you make the promotion? We used different ways for promoting the event: sport news, press conferences, articles in newspapers and programmes on local media. The mixture of all those elements that can appeal to entice a person who does not know anything about this particular sport and spend half a day to discover something new.   There was also live TV transmission of the finals, together with three days of TV and live internet streaming, including interviews, services, stories, personalities. You can see the videos on http://nuke.arcotoscanatv.org/. Everything for those who stayed at home!   What did you do for the archers? We wanted them to enjoy the overall experience, not only the shooting. For the archers who were present at the competition there was an abundant use of music to cover all regular breaks, during the recovery of the arrows and to change the target faces.   Both for those who were present at the competition and for those who stayed at home, the system of electronic recording of the scores with electronic keypads allowed to follow each stage of the race in real time.  What did you do for finals? We set up a special field. We shot on a blue track of an athletic stadium (like in Berlin for the Athletics World Championships) and we had plenty of fans in the tribune beside the track. We had an inflatable arch over the targets. We had a large TV screen (12m by 12m!) in the stadium and we fed by micro camera on targets and cameras facing the shooters. We also set up eight plasma screens to follow the statistics of the matches, specially made for the live. All of this was nice!   The best of the show was organised on Saturday evening: mixed team final at night together with the performance of Turin live music group “Histeria”, show dance group “Tru-DanSing” and presentation of the promotion movie for the World Archery Championships 2011.   What is your conclusion about the event? I believe we had a great show that mixed sports and entertainment. It’s a recipe for success if we take into consideration that about half of the audience was not only composed of archers and their acquaintances, but also of merely curious people, drawn from all that was offered.   With pretty much our first try, I would not say that we exactly matched the level of a 2009 World Cup stage, but we arose a really high interest: 650 participants, 3 days of competition, 3,000 spectators, and 170,000 visitors to the website of the event. We are sure that we have taken the right path!   Well done Ardingo, and keep it up for your future events!   Didier MIEVILLE FITA Communication