Myanmar will host the First Asian Open Compound Archery tournament at the Kyaikkasan Archery Ground here in the second week of December, according to the Myanmar Archery Federation (MAF) on Thursday.

The MAF has invited 33 member countries and regions of the Asian Archery Confederation (AAC) and also invited member countries of the world archery governing body through the AAC to participate in the First Asian Open Compound archery competition, which is a world rankings deciding event, the MAF general secretary U Kyaw Oo said.

A total of 24 medals -- eight gold, silver and bronze each -- will be awarded in eight events, two each in men's 70-meter individual, men's 70-meter team, women's 70-meter individual and women's 70-meter team, in the tournament scheduled on Dec. 9-14, he said.

It will be the fifth international archery tournament which Myanmar hosted since 1998. Myanmar hosted the Asian Roundup Archery Championships in 1998, the 13th Asian Archery Championship and the Athen Olympics Archery Qualifying tournament in 2003, the first Southeast Asian (SEA) Archery Championship and Asian Archery Grand Prix (2005) in 2005, the second SEA Archery Championship and third Asian Archery Grand Prix (2006) in 2006.

Meanwhile, five Myanmar archers -- four men and one woman -- is taking part in the recurve and compound events in both Third Asian Archery Grand Prix (2008) and Third SEA Archery Championship in Manila, the Philippines from Oct. 25 to 31, featuring men's and women's recurve and compound individual and team events. Myanmar's only female archer Ma Aung Nghein secured one gold medal in the women's individual knock-out compound event and a silver medal in women's individual 70-meter 72-arrow compound event in the Third Asian ARchery Grand Prix (2008) tournament.

Although a Myanmar archer who competed in the last Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, in August, did not get a podium finish, the MAF will apply the experiences gaining from it to making achievement in forthcoming international archery competitions, Kyaw Oo, who is also Assistant Director of the Sport and Physical Education Department said earlier.

Myanmar's only archer Nay Myo Aung competed in the last Beijing Olympic men's individual recurve event, participated by 64 qualified world archers, finishing 43th after losing to the 13th world-ranked Poland archers 106-110 in the first stage.

Two Myanmar female archer Ma Thi Thi Win participated in in the women's individual recurve event in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games in Australia and finished 61, while Ma Thin Thin Khine ranked 39 in the same event in the 2004 Athen Olympic Games in Greece.

Although Myanmar archers did not get any medal from the Olympic Games the MAF could make achievements in the regional competitions through the experiences obtaining from the Olympic Games. The MAF pocketed 18 medals -- eight gold, three silver and seven bronze, in five international competitions from 2000 to 2001 after taking part in the Sydney Olympic Games in Australia in 2000, and 70 medals -- 25 gold, 19 silver and 26 bronze, in five international tournaments from 2004 to 2005 after participating in the Athen Olympic Games in Greece in 2004.

The MAF, which was founded in 1995, has entered about 40 international competitions since then. The MAF grabbed 136 medals -- 43 gold, 43 silver and 50 bronze -- from the 24 international competitions including Asian Games, Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, Asian Archery Grand Prix, SEA Championships and Invitational Tournaments.

(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2008)