Telford's Danielle Brown earns late call-up for archery World Cup
Shropshire's double Paralympic gold medallist Danielle Brown will become the first paralympian to take part in an archery World Cup grand final this weekend when she takes on Italy's Marcella Tonioli in Japan.
The Telford-based athlete, who took women's individual compound gold at both the London and Beijing Paralympics, has earned a late call-up to the able-bodied event to replace Venezuela's Olga Bosch, who had to pull out.
She will get her campaign under way with a first-round match at about 3 o'clock British time on Saturday morning.
If she wins that, she will be back in action at 7.30am,with the medal matches scheduled to get under way half an hour later.
"Marcella will be a very tough opponent, but then anyone who's qualified for this event is a fantastic archer, so whoever I was up against would be tough," said Brown, who defeated fellow Brit Mel Clarke to pick up gold in London. "She's won a gold and a bronze at World Cup shoots this year, and is a worthy finalist.
"But I will be giving it my very best and, if Marcella does beat me, I'll make sure she had to work hard for it."
Tonioli is one of two Italian archers in the women's compound tournament.
The USA also has two competitors, in last year's runner-up Christie Colin and 2008 gold medallist Jamie Van Natta, while Russia's Albina Loginova, the Edinburgh 2010 gold medallist, is back at the grand final.
Brown will be one of three women making their first appearance at a grand final along with Kristina Berger of Germany and Japan's Yumiko Honda.
GB's Larry Godfrey, also appearing at his first World Cup grand final, is up against the reigning World Champion Kim Woojin of Korea on Sunday morning at 4am British time.
Brown was diagnosed at the age of 13 with a neurological condition that causes severe pain in her feet.
