It has been four years since this petition started and I have started to reflect on my progress. I started this campaign after being a volunteer at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. I have been thinking about what to expect when the Commonwealth Games comes to my country in Birmingham 2022. There is also the question of foreseeing where this campaign can go. These last few months I have been considering the objective of this petition and if I can do something better. I have discovered along the journey of this campaign that I have more to offer than promoting archery.

Now is the time for me to tell you that my objective is no longer to just simply upgrade archery to core status. My aim is to upgrade minority sports and to campaign for representation of them in the Commonwealth Games as part of a Commonwealth Sport Ambassador mission. This includes not just archery, but rowing, billiards and sailing amongst others. But don’t worry, this petition is still valid to my campaign.

Let me tell you what has led to this decision. In my previous update I mentioned that I have connections to government and people with connections to the Commonwealth organisations. Outside of my sports volunteering work I am a political and civil activist. I am a member of the Conservative party and I have networked with people in the local and national UK government to push my campaign. London Assembly Member Keith Prince has acted as my front to get in touch with President Louise Martin of the CGF. I even got a response from the Sport Secretary Tracey Crouch commending me for my work and encouraging me to continue seeking dialogue with them.

I have attended Commonwealth political conferences where I listened to talks from representatives of Commonwealth nations. One event that I went to had the Australian UK High Commissioner talking about the positive outcome of the Gold Coast 2018 CWG. He was delighted to see how much of a social impact these Games had on Australian civic pride. I had to network with people who have the power and resources to make changes to the Commonwealth Games in order to deliver an impact on it’s mission. My campaign can bring benefits to the CGF’s mission but I need to do more than just do that by promoting archery to core status. So I have made a bold decision to up my game and network with the Commonwealth of Nations, their sports ministers and their Commonwealth Sports Associations.

Of the people who I have networked with in the Conservative party some of them are passionate advocates of British relations in the Commonwealth. My friend and MP Andrew Rosindell is a member of an all party parliamentary group on Commonwealth connections. He has given his support to my campaign and believes that sport is a valuable tool to unite the Commonwealth in mutual harmony, civic justice and free enterprise. Let’s not forget the Commonwealth Games operates as a mission establishment for the Commonwealth. So as well as being a multi-sports event it’s also a division of an intergovernmental organisation that allows it’s member nations to participate in shared sporting and cultural heritage.

This type of collaboration can show that sports can work with political organisations. Although it is a controversial idea to some people and I know some of you will probably have concerns about me as a sports activist associating myself with politics. But let's put the Commonwealth Games in context. To most athletes and spectators multi-sport events are a form of entertainment and a pinnacle of sporting excellence. But it's more than that. Big sports events were formed from political and civil justice movements trying to reform communities and the world. Pierre du Coubertin started the Olympics as an international arena for countries to show off their strengths in a competitive way without using their military against each other. Swapping gun charges with athleticism. The Paralympic Games were started by Dr Ludwig Gutman in an effort to get people to embrace life positively while living with a disability and showing people that they are what he called 'the best of men'. As an autistic person he has shown me that even the intellectually impaired have good qualities to be a sharpshooter. Then there's the Commonwealth Games, which were formed as a civic mission of the Commonwealth of Nations. A voluntary organisation that is made of former members of the British Empire that have transitioned into an organised structure to promote human rights, civil justice and economic wealth. Through the CWG they are able to conduct enterprise and bring health and wellbeing to the communities within them.  

Another good example comes from a world famous activist from a Commonwealth nation. Earlier this year I watched and studied the film Invictus. It’s based on the story of 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. President Nelson Mandela was struggling to unite his people and heal the scars of a post-apartheid nation. He took a chance with the Springbok rugby captain Francois Pienaar and asked him to use the world cup and the rugby team to inspire the country to come together and support the national pride of the rainbow nation. It worked beautifully as the game was played and South Africa had something good to feel about itself as one glorious nation. Nowadays both blacks and white play games in a friendly manner with each other. 

After I saw Invictus I got in touch with Francois Pienaar by a mutual friend. I got a response telling me that he was glad of what I was doing and signed the petition. The best part of this is I now have a major international sports icon supporting my campaign. One day when I look back on this I can tell Pienaar that his story and Mandela inspired me to bring civic pride in the Commonwealth through cultural connections in sport.

I will continue to network with people in the positions that can help push this campaign and I look forward to making contact with them. In the meantime, I would like to pass on some helpful advice to Archery GB. Try selling archery not just as a sport but an enterprise with a social objective. You don’t get people interested in archery just with bows and arrows, you get people interested by the benefits that people get with archery. I was a volunteer at the Glasgow European Championships where I spoke to Team GB rower Karen Bennett. I told her about my campaign and how rowing, like archery, can be used to become a solution to an environmental problem. Rowers and archers play in rivers and fields which are vulnerable from pollution and subject to conservation issues.

If our sports made partnerships with environmental action groups we could open up our sports into a market which can bring us to a wider participation in our sports. Bennett thought it was a really good idea and hoped to see rowing played again in the Commonwealth Games. I think minority sports need to be a bit more creative in how to sell themselves. I wrote about this for a politics blog where I am a regular contributor.