GIROUILLE claims another victory

GIROUILLE claims another victory Bangkok – 21 February 2011   World Cup recurve contenders Romain GIROUILLE (FRA) and Inna STEPANOVA (RUS) won gold in the Bangkok Asian Grand Prix. The French athlete beat teammate Jean Charles VALLADONT 7-3, while the new Russian wonder girl defeated XU Xiaoting (CHN) 6-2. In compound, two times Olympian TANG Hua (CHN) and Kimberly NG YUQIN (SIN) won their respective categories. Photo: GIROUILLE at the 2009 World Cup Final in Copenhagen    Individual events In Recurve Men, GIROUILLE, who has won two World Cup stages, the 2010 European Championships and the World Ranking event in Medellin last December, added another victory to his resume. He beat VALLADONT in the final 7-3 (best of five set of three arrows for all the matches in 2011). The young Alexei BELOV (RUS) defeated well-known archer CHENG Chu Sian (MAS) for bronze. Another young talent, Gael PREVOST (FRA) was 5th.   In Recurve Women, STEPANOVA, who was 2nd at the Antalya World Cup last year, claimed victory ahead of XU, Thin Thin KHAINE (MYA) and Adachi NAHO (JPN).   In Compound Men, the story has been made by TANG Hua. He was a two times Olympian in Atlanta and Sydney—therefore in recurve. In Bangkok he upset Philippe HORNER (SUI) in a shoot off in the 1/8th elimination. The match was very tense and TANG also survived another shoot off in the quarterfinals. He finally won against Tien Cunong NGUYEN (VIE) 6-2 in the final. TANG is mainly active as coach and has taken up compound very recently since he could no longer continue to shoot a recurve bow due to an injury. His experience with a recurve bow was very useful in Bangkok tricky windy conditions during the week. Watch out for him in the future! For bronze, Ye Min SWE (MYA) beat local favourite Chakrit THONGWATTANA (THA) 7-1.   In Compound Women, NG YUQIN (SIN) won over the No. 1 seed Aung NGEAIN (MYA) 6-2 in the final. Anutaraporn SUVAPORN (THA) brought a medal to Thailand defeating Elina BLONSKAYA (KAZ) 6-2 for bronze. Please find the individual match charts here    Team events Russia and France began their outdoor season early making the trip to this first Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok. The Russians had slightly the better start beating the French team in the final 221-220. Japan beat Kazakhstan for bronze 218-205. To note, team still shoot 24-arrows for cumulative scores.   Japan won the Team Recurve Women category ahead of China (201-200), while Russia took 3rd place over Chinese Taipei (208-191).   Myanmar won both compound team events. Vietnam and Korea completed the top 3 on the men’s side. Thailand and Hong-Kong also climbed on the podium on the women’s side.   In the Mixed Team events (16-arrow matches), Russia finished 1st ahead of France, China and Japan in Recurve. Vietnam clinched victory in Compound ahead of Kazakhstan and Myanmar.   Please find: Complete results book here   Team match charts here   World Archery Communication