In the qualification round, away from the top and the tail of the ranking, one point is worth from under one place to almost four

The summary today

What a point is worth depends on the format, the division and the stretch of the ranking, and the available figures run from under one place to almost four. International qualification rankings usually have the same shape, a few outstanding scores at the top, an almost linear decline through the middle and a collapse in the tail, and the figure holds only for the middle stretch. At major events from 2007 to 2013, nearly all on the old 144-arrow round, each place was generally worth between 0.7 and 1.4 points, so one point was worth from about three quarters of a place to almost one and a half. On the current 72-arrow format the middle is denser: in the London 2012 Olympic qualification round one place was worth 0.54 points in men's recurve, and trend lines projected to the 2019 World Championships give from 0.39 to 0.84 points per place depending on the division, so one point is worth from just over one place to about two and a half; indoors, over 60 arrows, it runs from under one to almost four. All the figures come from the same author, and the London data also appear, in passing, in a study of emotions published in a venue with questionable editorial standards.

Also phrased as: "how much a point is worth in qualification"; "every point counts in qualification"; "points and places in the ranking"; "one bad end costs ten places"; "how tightly packed the qualification ranking is"

Evidence

• 2014
  For Archers Published later

  Qualification rounds at the first 2013 World Cup stage in Shanghai, across the four divisions, read alongside those of the World Championships the same year: leaving out the tail of the ranking, each place was worth about 1.4 points in recurve, over 144 arrows, and about 0.7 in compound, over 72 arrows at 50 m, in both cases roughly 0.1 per cent of the possible score per place.

  Analysis of scores and arrow grouping at major international archery competitions · James L Park, James E Larven

• 2014
  Context Archers Published later

  In men's recurve at the same event the top score was 1371 out of 1440, close to the world record of the time, 1387, with the wind estimated below 1 m/s. The score curve has the same shape in the other divisions and at the World Championships, and according to the authors it has been typical of these events for many years: a few outstanding scores in the top two or three places, an almost linear decline, then a collapse in the tail. These are the same data as the previous item.

  Analysis of scores and arrow grouping at major international archery competitions · James L Park, James E Larven

• 2014
  For Archers Published later

  Men's recurve and compound qualification rounds at the 2007 and 2009 World Championships and at World Cup stages 2, 3 and 4 in 2009, on the 144-arrow round: the score falls almost in a straight line with ranking place, usually with a small peak in the first few places and a collapse in the tail, with a gradient generally between about 0.7 and 1.4 points per place. These are different events from those in the analysis of 2013, read by the same author in a study of score loss with distance.

  Modelling archers’ scores at different distances to quantify score loss due to equipment selection and technique errors · James L Park

• 2015
  For Archers Published later

  Three Malaysian recurve archers in the qualification round at the London 2012 Olympics, 72 arrows at 70 m: 669 points and twentieth place, 658 and forty-fifth, 654 and forty-eighth. Fifteen points separate twentieth place from forty-eighth. The placings are reported in passing in a study of emotions; journal with questionable editorial standards.

  Archery: Emotion Intensity Regulation to Stay in the Zone during Olympic Competition Questionable venue · Jolly Roy, Edin Suwarganda

• 2016
  For Archers Published later

  Men's recurve qualification at the 2012 Olympics, 72 arrows at 70 m: leaving out the top two and the tail, the line linking score and place has a gradient of 0.54 points per place, so on the current format one point is worth about two places. The middle of the ranking is denser than on the old 144-arrow round.

  Winning major international target archery competitions · James L Park

• 2019
  For Archers Published later

  Scores for 16th and 32nd place in international qualification rounds, from the trend lines of an earlier study by the same author projected to the 2019 World Championships: outdoors one place is worth 0.49 points in men's recurve, 0.84 in women's recurve, 0.39 in men's compound and 0.72 in women's compound; indoors, at the 2017 Nîmes stage, 0.64, 1.30, 0.27 and 0.55. Put the other way round, outdoors over 72 arrows one point is worth from just over one place to about two and a half, and indoors over 60 arrows from under one to almost four, depending on the division.

  Optimising an archer’s foot position to obtain a competitive advantage · James L Park

Status history

1. 2014 Reported Two readings of international qualification rounds arrive in the same year, by the same author but on different events. The first, on the 2013 World Cup and World Championships, finds that leaving out the tail each place was worth about 1.4 points in recurve, over 144 arrows, and about 0.7 in compound, over 72; the second, on the 2007 and 2009 World Championships and the 2009 World Cup, gives between about 0.7 and 1.4 points per place on the 144-arrow round. The ranking has the same shape: a few outstanding scores at the top, an almost linear decline, a collapse in the tail. These are real competition data and they point the same way, and they fall within the claim's range, but they cover only its lower end, from about three quarters of a place to almost one and a half per point, they come from the same author and from a qualification format that was about to change in recurve: reported.
2. 2015 Reported A study of the emotions of three Olympic archers reports where they placed in the London 2012 qualification round, on the 72-arrow format at 70 m: 669 points were worth twentieth place, 658 forty-fifth and 654 forty-eighth. Fifteen points for twenty-eight places comes to almost two places per point, a denser middle than on the old round. The figure is incidental, though, and comes from a venue with questionable editorial standards, so it confirms without moving the status.
3. 2016 Reported On the 72-arrow format at 70 m the middle of the ranking is denser: in the men's recurve qualification round at the 2012 Olympics, leaving out the top two and the tail, one place is worth 0.54 points, so one point is worth about two places. The figure falls within the claim's range and stretches it upwards, but it comes from the same author as the 2014 papers: the status stays reported.
4. 2019 Reported The trend lines of international qualification rounds give the rate division by division between 16th and 32nd place: outdoors, projected to the 2019 World Championships, from 0.39 points per place in men's compound to 0.84 in women's recurve; indoors, at the 2017 Nîmes stage over 60 arrows, from 0.27 to 1.30. One point is therefore worth from under one place to almost four, the claim's whole range. The divisions differ widely from one another, and the figures still come from the same author: the status stays reported.

Related

Related articles

• The top qualifier is the best archer once in sevenIn a simulated top-level field the top qualifier is the best archer 14.2 times in 100. Yet at the major events analysed, gold mostly went to a top-16 qualifier.
• I scored more and lost: how the set system worksSince 2010 a match has been decided by sets, not by adding up arrows. How it works, how often the lower total wins, and why it happens mostly between equals.
• How many points does it take to tell two archers apart?Two identical top archers finish five points apart on average over 72 arrows, by chance alone. How big a gap you need, and how many competitions prove a gain.

Research lines

• 21 studiesDistance, group size and score
• 56 studiesAnxiety and confidence in archery competition since 1986

Other claims in this domain

• CorroboratedAbout 150 points on a FITA round separate a club archer from a national-team archer13 studies · 492 archers measuredStatus since 2003
• CorroboratedAn archer's arousal rises with what is at stake, and keeps rising as the competition goes on3 studies · 23 archers measuredStatus since 2011
• CorroboratedArchers are more aroused in competition than in training5 studies · 50 archers measuredStatus since 2025
• CorroboratedAt 70 metres a top archer averages about nine points per arrow7 studies · 72 archers measuredStatus since 2012
• CorroboratedEven in competition at the highest level, most arrows are not tens4 studies · 3,212 archers measuredStatus since 2024

See all claims on competition and scoring