Tunisia’s Roua Ben Abdelkader won the recurve women’s title at the Oran 2026 African Archery Championships on Sunday, beating Algeria’s Rania Hachani in a shoot-off.
“The gold medal is very, very special to me. I’m very grateful to all those who supported me to get to this place,” she said.
Abdelkader, this year’s top seed, was runner-up last year in Abidjan. The 19-year-old is a student and had to fit training around her studies.
“It wasn’t very easy to train regularly, but it’s very good to be an African champion now, ” he said. “I’m going to do my best so that any future participation at international level will be honourable and reflect the true level of Tunisian archery. Nothing is impossible. It’s a matter of devotion and hard work.”
Abdelkader and Hachani had already faced each other in the mixed team competition, where again Tunisia got the better of Algeria – although Hachani had led the Algerian recurve women’s team to a gold medal against Benin earlier in the day.
In recurve men, Algeria’s Imadeddine Bakri upset the form book to win 6-0 against top seed Bahaaeldin Aly of Egypt, and become the first Algerian man to be African champion.
In front of a noisy home crowd, he edged every set.
“The final was great. He was a good opponent. He was a good archer. I shot well. I had the advantage of the people, the Algerian people were here,” said Bakri afterwards.
“I tell myself to never give up. Archery is not an easy sport. You can’t see the result in one or two years. You must work hard every day and be patient, and the result will come.”
Bakri also revealed bigger ambitions.
“I hope we can compete in the World Cup stages to prepare for Olympic qualification, and then the world championships in Medellin next year.”
The para recurve men’s competition was a battle of the top two seeds, and there was a minor upset as Precious Allan Asiimwe of Uganda beat favourite Abdelkader Izri for gold in a shoot-off.
It was Asiimwe’s first international competition after two years of training.
“I’m very proud to win gold today in my first international championship,” he said. “I really appreciate being in Algeria for the first time.”
Asiimwe, who repairs motorcycles for a living, was outspoken about the possibilities of para sport.
“People with disabilities are often left behind and feel they are not included. My message is to encourage them to join us in sport. They can come out of the darkness, be proud of themselves and see what is possible. We should also be proud of ourselves because God knows us. There’s no reason to think, ‘I’m left out.’”
Asiimwe gave Uganda their sole medal of the championships. Host nation Algeria topped the medal table with medals across the senior and junior categories, but perhaps the most remarkable team performance came from Namibia, whose seven athletes collected seven medals, including four compound golds.
The recurve finals concluded the competition, with many archers already looking ahead to the next major competition in Africa, the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Senegal in November.
Podiums: Oran 2026
Full results are available on the event page.
Recurve men
- Imadeddine Bakri, Algeria
- Bahaaeldin Aly, Egypt
- Chan Yam Ryan, Mauritius
Recurve women
- Roua Ben Abdelkader, Tunisia
- Rania Hachani, Algeria
- Yasmine Bellal, Algeria
Para recurve men
- Precious Allan Asiimwe, Uganda
- Abdelkader Izri, Algeria
- Ravindra Bookun, Mauritius
