The American archer, Paige returns to 50-meter target archery at World Games

The American archer, Paige returns to 50-meter target archery at World Games. Archery is the sport in which a bow is used to shoot arrows. It is extracted from the Latin word ‘Archus’ which means bow. In ancient times, it was used for hunting and combat purposes but in modern times, its purpose has been reduced to being a competitive sport or a recreational activity.

Disciplines of Archery

Official rules regarding each discipline of archery are registered in the World Archery Rulebook and are regulated by National Archery Federations.

1. Target Archery

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Target archery is the discipline of shooting at stationary circular targets of different colors like yellow, red, blue, black, and white. It is set at specific distances of 70 meters for recurve archers and 50 meters for compound archers. There are other recognized formats, like the 1440 Round that use distances of 90, 70, 60, 50, and 30 meters.

2. Indoor Archery

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Indoor archery is the discipline of target archery that uses smaller versions of the recognizable yellow, red, blue, black, and white targets when practiced indoors. The target is typically set at a distance of 18 meters for both recurve and compound archers.

3. Field Archery

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Field archery is the discipline of shooting at stationary circular targets (black and yellow) of different sizes set at distances between 5 and 60 meters, heights, and angles around a course for recurve, compound, and barebow archers. 

4. Para Archery

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Para archery is the discipline of target archery for athletes with an impairment.

5. 3D Archery

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3D archery is the discipline of archery that includes shooting at stationary foam targets in the shapes of different animals. The targets are set at varying distances, heights, and angles around a course.

Who is Paige Pearce?

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Paige Pearce is an American compound Archer. She won two silver medals in the 2019 World Archery Championships:

• women’s individual compound event
• women’s team compound event

She won the bronze medal at the Pan American Games in the women’s individual event held in Lima, Peru in 2019. She won the women’s compound event at the Vegas Shoot in 2020 held in Las Vegas, United States. She won the bronze medal at the 2021 World Archery Championships in the women’s team compound event held in Yankton, United States. In January 2022, she got second place in the Women’s Open Pro event at the Lancaster Archery Classic. It was held near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States.

Return to 50-meter archery

Paige returned to the 50-meter game at the World Games in Birmingham, California. In 2022, she proved to be successful in the professional circuit of 3D tournaments in the States. But for the event on her home soil, she returned to the 50-meter discipline of archery. 

“Anytime there’s an event on home soil, it makes you want to win it that much more,” says Paige. “This is an event that doesn’t come around all that often. It’s pretty cool that my first one is on home soil.”

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It is quite difficult to move back and forth between the disciplines of 3D archery and 50-meter target archery. While the 3D discipline of archery requires decision-making and fieldcraft, the 50-meter discipline introduces time pressure and an impact from environmental conditions.

“It’s tough to switch back and forth between the two,” says Paige

“I know we’re all hoping that we have strong performances and hopefully we’ll see the USA on the top of the podium.”

The World Games are being referred to as the Olympics for bow style because of the decision of moving the archery competition from the discipline of the field to the 50-meter for compound archers.

The World Archery announced that it had asked for the compound archers to join the Olympics.“It’s super exciting,” says Paige. “This is something that has been talked about a lot over the last 10 years but I don’t think the possibility of that had really set in for anybody until now.”