Long before carbon limbs and precision-­engineered cams reshaped the world of archery, the wooden recurve bow stood as a humble and reliable companion, rich in tradition and heritage.

Recurve bows are long, elegant and low-tech, and rely mostly on the strength of the archer. Nowadays, the recurve is often the bow of choice for recreational archery.

How does Olympic archery work? Using a kind of bow known as a recurve bow - it has limbs that curve away from the holder when unstrung - archers shoot arrows at a 122cm target positioned 70m away.

More sports News: At Archery World Cup Stage 2, Indian recurve teams faltered. The men's team finished fourth after losing to the USA. The women's team exited in the pr ...

They may shoot either a recurve or compound bow modified from standard rules but there are not separate competitions for the two disciplines.

“ [It’s] a stripped-down hybrid basically between a compound and a recurve [bow] so we can’t use a sight or anything else to aid us so it’s fair for everybody,” Alexis explains.

India's recurve archers (compound archery, at which India has been hugely successful of late, is not an Olympic sport) will stoutly defend their record by citing World Cups, World Championship ...

“ [It’s] a stripped-down hybrid basically between a compound and a recurve [bow] so we can’t use a sight or anything else to aid us so it’s fair for everybody,” Alexis explains.