Myanmar archery team member Yu Nandar Htike practises as she targets victory in Bangkok next week. Pic: Lwin Maung Maung

THE Myanmar archery team will head to Bangkok this week with some new archers for the first Asian Roundup Archery Championships 2006, held from February 13 to 18, Archery Federation officials said last week.

Secretary of the federation U Kyaw Oo said he thought the team had a good chance of success. “We’ve competed in the Asian Roundup Archery Championships since 1998 and have won at least one gold medal (each time the team competed),” he said.

Fourteen Myanmar archers will compete in the Bangkok tournament, with eight men and six women entered in the recurve and compound competitions.

Recurve archery involves no control equipment on the bow, while compound events allow for bows to be equipped with stabilising and aiming gear.

“In men’s recurve, all four of our archers except SEA Games gold medalist Zaw Win Htike are new members,” U Kyaw Oo said.

“We plan to give some of the newer archers international exposure because some of our current archers are old and not strong enough to go on competing.”

The Asian Roundup Archery Championships take place three times a year and attract Asian archery powerhouses such as Korea, Japan, China, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia, who compete to raise their world rankings which are mainly determined by the results of the competitions.

U Kyaw Oo said Myanmar would learn its own world ranking after the Bangkok event.

The second roundup competition will be held in Malaysia in June. Myanmar will host the third in September or early October, U Kyaw Oo said.

Myanmar has a strong archery record and has won 30 international gold medals.