Anyone familiar with the legend of Robin Hood knows archery competitions date back at least to mediaeval times. Indeed, today's archers still honour the fabled outlaw. The term "Robin Hood" now refers to splitting the shaft of an arrow already in the target with another arrow.

The equipment has crept forward in its technology since Robin and his merry men had the run of Sherwood Forest, but the sport of archery remains essentially unchanged. A recurve bow coated in fibreglass has become standard, and arrows made of aluminium and carbon graphite can travel more than 240km/h, but the most important requirements are straightforward: steady hands, strong shoulders, flexible muscles, sharp eyes and nerves of steel.

Archery was a feature of the Olympic Games several times from 1900 to 1920, but then disappeared for more than 50 years. It reappeared at Munich in 1972 and has remained a fixture

At the Sydney 2000 Games, archers shot at targets 70 metres away in four events - men's and women's individual and team competitions. The target is 1.22 metres in diameter and marked with 10 concentric rings. From where the archers stand, it looks about the same size as the head of a thumbtack held at arm's length.

The centre ring, or bullseye, measures 12.2 centimetres in diameter, and counts 10 points. The outer ring counts one, and the rings in between increase by one point in value as they near the centre.

Archers, or teams, compete in head-to-head matches in single elimination after being ranked from one to 64. The semi-finals winners decide the gold and silver medals in the final, and the semi-finals losers shoot for the bronze.