Namibia seal record seven-medal haul in Algeria
Namibia completed its largest documented medal haul at the African Archery Championships after collecting four gold, two silver and one bronze medals at the 15th edition in Oran, Algeria, on Saturday.
The eight-member team’s seven-medal return was led by African champions Jannie Meuwesen, Jacqueline Coetzee and Saimi Naango Shilunga, while Meuwesen and Elisabeth Taljaard added another title in the compound mixed-team event.
Taljaard and De-Villiers Visser won silver in compound women and para compound men respectively, with Alvin Iita completing the medal haul with bronze in para compound men.
Archery Association of Namibia (AAN) secretary-general Coetzee, who also competed at the championships, told Sport Wrap on Sunday that the result was, as far as the association’s records show, the country’s highest medal total at the event.
Namibia had already secured Shilunga’s para compound women’s gold and Iita’s para compound men’s bronze by Thursday before adding three gold and two silver medals during Saturday’s finals.
Meuwesen lands double gold
Meuwesen entered the compound men’s elimination rounds as the top seed after scoring 689 from 72 arrows in qualification.
He received a bye in the opening round before defeating Mauritius’ Jacques Hok Liong Haw Fan Lun 146-121 in the quarter-finals.
Meuwesen then beat another Mauritian, Alexandre Dabiani Sebastien Fortuno, 147-135 in the semi-finals to set up a gold-medal meeting with second seed and defending champion Adrien Charoux of Mauritius.
The Namibian completed his unbeaten individual run with a 133-128 victory over Charoux to become the compound men’s African champion. Meuwesen returned to the shooting line alongside Taljaard in the compound mixed-team final.
The Namibian pair topped qualification with a combined 1 340 points and advanced directly to the final as the top seeds in the three-team competition.
They defeated Nigeria’s Hareke Evans and Seun Emmanuel Oyeleke 142-138 to secure Namibia’s fourth gold medal. Nigeria had beaten Algeria’s Sihem Akli and Ramdane Semache 143-102 in the semi-finals.
All-Namibian final
Namibia was guaranteed gold and silver in compound women after Taljaard and Coetzee progressed to an all-Namibian final.
Taljaard topped qualification with 651 before receiving a bye into the semi-finals, where she defeated Algeria’s Akli 134-108.
Coetzee qualified second with 642 and also advanced directly to the semi-finals, where she beat Nigeria’s Evans 132-119.
The Namibians could not be separated after their 15-arrow final, which ended 128-128 and required a one-arrow shoot-off to determine the champion. Coetzee shot a ten to Taljaard’s nine to claim gold, leaving her compatriot with silver.
Coetzee said the Namibian archers had to contend with difficult weather conditions and strong opposition throughout the championships.
“The heat and wind were next-level challenging. We had gusts of wind blowing the gazebos out of the field and breaking the fence, and still we managed to keep our arrows on the target,” she said.
“The competition across the divisions we entered was of an international level. We had to dig deep to compete at such a high level of expertise. All the countries participating in our divisions came well prepared and did not make it easy to win.”
World Archery also described the qualification conditions in Oran as hot, dry and very windy.
Visser takes silver
Visser finished second in para compound men after reaching the final against Senegal’s top seed Aliou Drame.
The newly classified Namibian scored 456 in qualification to earn the third seed and received a bye into the semi-finals. He defeated compatriot and second seed Iita 108-104 to advance to the gold-medal match.
In the final, Drame secured gold and Visser silver. The public results bracket available at the time of publication did not display their final score.
Iita, who scored 546 to qualify second, recovered from his semi-final defeat to contest the bronze-medal match against fellow Namibian Jan-Lotz du Toit.
They were tied at 94-94 after regulation before Iita shot a ten in the one-arrow shoot-off, compared with Du Toit’s eight, to secure bronze.
Du Toit qualified fourth with 455 and began his elimination run with a 101-68 quarter-final victory over Algeria’s Abderrahmane Belkous. He then lost 98-138 to Drame in the semi-finals before his shoot-off defeat to Iita left him fourth overall.
Shilunga crowned champion
Shilunga won para compound women’s gold as the only competitor entered in the category.
She completed the qualification round with 474 points and was subsequently confirmed by the Namibian delegation as the division’s African champion. No head-to-head elimination match was required.
Before the competition, Shilunga, Iita and Visser successfully underwent international para-classification on 20 July, confirming their eligibility and respective competition categories.
Du Toit did not require classification in Oran because he already held a valid international classification.
Wahlers reaches last eight
Lutz Wahlers was Namibia’s only archer not to finish on the podium after placing seventh overall in barebow men. He scored 518 to qualify sixth before beating Senegal’s Papa Gorgui Diongue 6-4 in the round of 16.
Wahlers’ run ended with a 2-6 quarter-final defeat to Algeria’s third seed Chafik Mekki, leaving him seventh in the final standings.
Turnout and next challenges
The compound, barebow and para compound finals were held on Saturday, while the remaining recurve finals concluded the championships on Sunday. The World Ranking Event attracted 138 archers from 18 African countries and ran from 21 to 26 July.
Coetzee and the Namibian para-archers departed Algeria on Sunday and were scheduled to arrive back in the country this afternoon. The remaining members of the delegation are expected to return on Saturday.
Coetzee said the para-archers will next turn their attention to the Fazza para-archery world-ranking competition in Dubai from 5 to 11 December, while the able-bodied archers will begin preparing for next year’s African Games.
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