The African participation in the Paris Games came to an end on August 1st as none of the participants went beyond the 1/32 elimination round. As was announced even before the start of the Games, the competition was tough, and total concentration and self-control were the key to keep progressing towards the podium. Unfortunately, the Olympic experience for the African archers participating in this 2024 edition was prematurely over as foreseen by many technicians because of the discrepancies, especially at the technical level between the African archers and their opponents during the eliminations.
The 1/32 elimination round matches started on July 30 for Chad’s Madaye and Tunisia’s Elwalid. In fact, Madaye did not resist much against Korea’s Kim Woojin who seeded first during the qualification round. He lost 0 to 6 after three quick sets. Half a surprise was however created by Rihab Elwalid who succeeded in winning a set and making a tie in another after a shy start against China’s Yang X. before finally losing 7-3.
On July 31 Egyptian archer Ali J. played against Korea’s Nam S. and lost 6-0. The second match was supposed to be played between South Africa’s representative Roux W. and Korea’s Kim JD but it was postponed to August 1st because of forecasted thunderstorms. Roux finally played his match and lost 6-0. Our archers did their best but South Korean archers proved to be way ahead at all levels.
The last two matches were played on August 1st and involved Egypt’s Tolba Y. who played against the German archer Unruh F. and lost against him 6-0, and Africa’s record woman and Guinea’s representative Sylla F. who played against USA’s Kaufhold C. Like Elwalid, Sylla made a good performance and was able to win a set but it was not enough. She finally lost 6-2 thus announcing the end of the African archers’ participation in this edition of the Games.
Overall, though the results could have been way better than the ones realized, African archery’s presence in the Olympic games was quite positive and encouraging. Indeed, four out of the six archers participating in the Games are first timers and hopefully this first experience will be an incentive to work harder and maybe renew the experience in Los Angeles in 2028.
It should be noted that many MA presidents and officials were present at the games in addition to WAAf president, Mr. Tarik Amiry.
EN 
FR