This news was shared by the Lithuanian Archery Federation (LLF). The men’s Olympic archery team consisting of Dalius Macernius, Modestas Šliauteris and Domantas Šuliokas was supposed to go to the Olympic selection tournament in Essen (Germany) on Saturday.
However, their journey stopped at the Kaunas airport.
“When the archers arrived at the airport, they learned that Ryanair does not transport bows on their planes.
Unfortunately, according to this company’s policy, bows are classified as weapons, and archers going to the highest level competitions with their sports equipment cannot use sports bows on flights operated by this company.
It is extremely disappointing that the athletes have to miss the Olympic selection tournament and now look for new flights in order to participate in the European Archery Championship starting on Monday,” the federation wrote on its Facebook account.
According to archers, such problems did not arise before, but the rules of the mentioned airline clearly define that bows cannot be transported. Clause 8.9.1 provides: “Real firearms, ammunition and edged weapons or imitations thereof, including starter guns, toy or recreational weapons (eg paintball guns), nail guns, bows, lead guns, catapults, harpoons, stun guns, shock devices, cattle prods and lasers.”
Finally, the archers who lost their Olympic hopes joined other Lithuanians competing in the European Championship.
Tags: Ryanair rules prevented Lithuanian athletes fighting Olympic tickets
