Ogden set its sights a few years back on becoming one of the most recognized recreational centers in the United States, and toward that goal has hit another bull's-eye.

Ogden will, in 2009, be site of the Youth Archery World Championships, gateway to the first Youth Olympic Games in 2010 in Singapore.

The shooting event, scheduled for July 13-18, will be held on the campus of Weber State University and in downtown Ogden. It will attract 450 competitors between 14 and 18 and 400 coaches from more than 50 countries.

It was also announced that Ogden will be host city of three World Cup archery events in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Qualifying for those events will also be held at WSU, with the finals in downtown Ogden. Each of these events is expected to attract 250 world-class archers and 150 coaches from more than 25 countries.

The economic impact is expected to be around $2.3 million.

Equally important to the city of Ogden, said Mayor Matthew Godfrey, will be the worldwide attention it will bring to Ogden ... more than 889 million viewers watching more than 400 TV channels.

There will be 16 events held in the men's and women's competition in the World Championships. Events will involve both recurve and compound bows.

Individual countries will also use this event to help select Youth Olympic teams.

The three World Cup events will be Aug. 3-7 in 2010, Aug. 1-6 in 2011 and June 19-23 in 2012.

World Cup archery was introduced in 2006. In 2007, the World Finals were held on a floating venue in Dubai.

There will be eight events, for both recurve and compound bows, in World Cup competition.

A compound bow works mechanically using a series of pulleys and/or cams. The recurve is the more traditional bow with the string connected to two curved limbs. The compound is considered the easiest of the two bows to shoot. A 50-pound compound will hold at 20 pounds at full draw, where a 50-pound recurve will hold at 50 pounds at full draw.

Each competitor, in both the youth and World Cup events, will shoot four distances, ranging from 90 to 30 meters. Shooters will have four minutes to shoot six arrows in each round. Scoring will be based on the traditional 10-ring target. An arrow in the outer ring counts as one point and an arrow in the center counts 10 points.

Among those involved in securing the four events were Denise Parker, the 1988 bronze medalist in archery competition, and Greg Easton, president of Easton Technical Products, a major supplier of aluminum products, including arrows.

Godfrey has been working for years to make Ogden a center for recreation in the Intermountain area. Among the available events there are indoor surfing, kayaking, rock and ice climbing, water and snow skiing, indoor climbing and a wind tunnel for individual flight.

Several major manufacturers of recreational equipment have also moved headquarters to the Ogden area in recent years.

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