Imadeddine Bakri became the first Algerian to make a recurve men’s gold medal final in the history of the African Archery Championships, as individual eliminations wrapped at Oran 2026 on Thursday.
“This is my fourth African Championship and this is my first final. Did at playing home help me? Yes and no. There is stress and there is pressure, but it’s good to shoot.” said the 26-year-old.
Bakri upset the form book to come from seventh place in qualification, beating third seed Chan Yam Ryan of Mauritius 6-4 in the semi, and giving the host nation yet another final.
“The competition for me didn’t start this week. It started last year. I imagined [the finals] in my head, then I did it in the reality.“ Bakri will face top seed Bahaaeldin Aly of Egypt for gold on Sunday, who breezed through his matches dropping just four points.
The recurve women‘s final will see last year‘s individual runner-up and this year’s top seed, Tunisia’s Roua Ben Abdelkader take on Rania Hachani of Algeria. Hachani, who was a part of last year‘s gold medal winning recurve team performance said afterwards she was “quite confident” of taking home gold.
The compound women‘s final will be an all-Namibian affair between Elisabeth Taljaard and Nabuel winner Jacqueline Coetzee, the top two seeds, while the men‘s will see last year’s winner Adrien Charoux try to defend his title against Jannie Meuwesen of Namibia – again, a battle of the top two seeds.
In barebow, Faith Adekogbe of Nigeria will take on Algeria‘s Marwa Rahmoun, while on the men‘s side Junior Aristide Falang Delli of Cameroon will battle Nacim Younsi of the host nation.
The competition continues with the team rounds on Friday, and the competition finals this weekend are being made available to watch free of charge on archery+
