A local archery judge will be casting an eye over the sport at next year’s Paralympic Games.

Richard Breese has been selected as an official for the event, which will be held at the Woolwich Barracks next August.

He will also be involved in the Olympics in a scoring capacity.

He said: “I’ll be judging at the Paralympics as I’m in my third year of international judging and you don’t qualify as an Olympic judge until you’ve been at international level for five years.

“I will be at the Olmypics as a scorer though. We had a test event at Lord’s, where the Olympic event will be held, about a month ago, which was wonderful, and we’ve got a test event at the Royal Artillery Barracks at Woolwich in August, where the Paralympic event will take place.

“The actual competition will last about a week. There will be a general qualifying round and every player will get a ranking score from that. They will then be seeded before a head-to-head knockout round, so it’s pretty full on.”

The 55-year-old, who has been a member of Bronte Archers in Bradford since 1990, has been a judge for around 15 years and will be the only British judge officiating at the Paralympics.

He says he likes being involved in an officiating capacity, something which requires just as much preparation as the sport itself. He added: “I used to compete and I used to do quite well. I worked my way up through the grades and I was ranked tenth in my class in Britain in 2001.

“Competing takes up a lot of your time but judging is similar – it involves a lot of exams and studying.

“We’re regularly assessed and we get sent questionnaires every three months asking us what we’d do in various situations.

“If we make a decision that an archer doesn’t agree with, they can appeal that. You do get the odd prima donna and they will argue the toss but that’s why we go through a vigorous training programme.

“I had a situation in Turin at the World Championships where a guy didn’t like the decision I made and he and his coach came up to me and argued it. It got appealed but then got upheld.

“But I enjoy the officiating side, seeing that fair play is there and that the rules are applied fairly. Obviously I know the guys having played alongside them, so I’ve got that background experience to bring in as well.”