Tunisia’s Roua Ben Abdelkader topped the recurve women’s qualifying field at the Oran 2026 African Archery Championships in Algeria on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old also topped qualification last year at the Abidjan 2025 African Archery Championships, where she would go on to finish with individual silver.
In hot, dry and very windy conditions, she shot 588, 27 points clear of Algeria‘s Rania Hachani in second place. “It wasn’t really a very easy task to shoot a good score, but I managed to finish qualification to the best of my abilities, even if during training I shot a lot more. It’s a good feeling,” she said.
The experienced Bahaaeldin Aly of Egypt led the recurve men‘s field with 634; it was his second visit to the city after competing at the Mediterranean Games in 2022. Defending champion Franck Eyeni, after admitting to a difficult year, was down in 11th place.
Namibia’s Elisabeth Taljaard topped the compound women’s field in the afternoon session with 651, ahead of teammate Jacqueline Coetzee who had already had a busy morning on the field coaching no less than four para archers.
“It’s a privilege to be ranked first,” said Taljaard. “It does not come easy, but with hard work and dedication, it makes it worth it.”
The compound men’s field was also led by another Namibian, Jannie Meuwesen, pushing last year‘s winner Adrien Charoux of Mauritius into the second seed spot.
In the recurve men’s under-18 competition, Egypt‘s Ismail Ezzeldin – just 16 – claimed a new African record with 650, smashing his own mark of 621 by a huge 29 points.
