RULES IN BRIEF Archers must stand to shoot, according to the rule book. However, there have been two famous exceptions: Neroli Fairhall, a New Zealander paralysed from the waist down, made history by shooting from a wheelchair in 1984, while Paola Fantato, an Italian who was disabled by polio, repeated that stirring feat at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Archers may wear protective equipment such as finger protectors, a glove on the bow hand and glasses. They must not wear anything that can be construed as giving them an advantage. Archers may use their own bows and arrows, providing they conform to certain specifications: Bows must weigh more than 22 kilograms for men's competition, more than 15kg for women's. Most strings are made of a hydrocarbon product, while some still are made of kevlar, the material used to make bulletproof vests. Arrows must have a maximum diameter of 11mm. Each arrow must be marked with the competitor's name or initials, while archers use distinctive colours and patterns on the arrow fletching to distinguish their arrows. An arrow is counted as a shot if it goes beyond the reach of the archer. If an arrow falls within the archer's reach, it may be shot again. If an archer shoots an extra arrow, or shoots an arrow out of sequence or outside the time limit, the highest scoring arrow of that end is not counted. In the team events, archers may be coached while on the shooting line. That is not allowed in the individual events. If an arrow is touching two rings, the ring with the higher point score is counted. If an arrow becomes embedded in another arrow, the score of the first arrow is taken. If an arrow misses the target, no points are scored. If an arrow rebounds from the target or passes through the target, the score is taken from the mark left by the arrow, providing it can be identified. The archer raises a flag after finishing an end to let the judges know an arrow has rebounded. Within the bull's-eye lies an inner circle called the X10, which can be used to decide ties. It still scores ten points, but, if two archers tie in the ranking round, the one with the most Xs, or arrows in the X10, gets the edge. In the ranking round, the criteria for deciding ties are, in order, most scoring hits, most tens and most Xs. A shoot-out with three arrows each decides the winner in case of a tie in head-to-head competition.