https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/first-set-scores-lower Changes to this claim in Matteo Campagna's evidence registry: its status, its year-by-year history, revisions of the page. en-gb https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/first-set-scores-lowerA single study, but on real competition data and with each archer compared with themselves: 3,645 performances by adult archers, three quarters of them recurve and the rest compound, in World Archery matches from 2013 to 2019 that went to a shoot-off. Compared with the first set, scores rise by 0.3 per cent in the second (p < 0.05) and by the same amount in the third, where the difference is only borderline (p < 0.1); in the fourth and fifth they return to where they were, with small differences that are not significant (minus 0.2 and minus 0.1 per cent). Widening the sample to all matches that ended in five sets, 19,838 performances, the shape is the same: an average of 9.138 in the first set, 9.151 and 9.155 in the second and third, then 9.145 and 9.122. The first set, then, is lower than the second, and perhaps the third, rather than all the ones that follow, and the gap is measured in hundredths of a point per arrow. Why it happens the study does not say: warm-up, early tension or simply settling in are possible readings that nobody has separated.claim:primo-set-piu-basso:revision:2026-07-18:2Sat, 18 Jul 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/first-set-scores-lowerclaim:primo-set-piu-basso:new_claim:2026-05-26:riportatoTue, 26 May 2026 08:00:00 GMT