14 August 2008 - African archers find silver lining in Olympic losses

African archers find silver lining in Olympic losses  Beijing – 14 August 2008 Khadija ABBOUDA (MAR)    Five archers from Africa contested the archery event at the Beijing 2008 Olympics and even though none won a match, their mere presence can be deemed an unqualified success.    Soha ABED ELAAL (EGY), Veronique M. D'UIENVILLE (MRI) and Khadija ABBOUDA (MAR) competed in the women's individual on Tuesday, and Maged YOUSSEF (EGY) and Calvin HARTLEY (RSA) competed in the men's individual on Wednesday.   "We are not new to each other," said ABED ELAAL. "We support each other psychologically and in many things. You say, 'you can make it, you had a good score in Africa, you can do it again'."     ABED ELAAL, YOUSSEF, and HARTLEY train at a new facility in Egypt, the FITA Middle East Archery Centre (MEAC). All three say the centre is essential to their success. HARTLEY, who won the 2008 Continental African Championship to qualify for Beijing, lost to Cuba's Juan Carlos STEVENS in the second arrow of a tiebreak in his first Olympics.   The MEAC provides a formal place for African archers to train, while also attracting some of the top archers from more developed countries.   "Last year we had Italy, Finland, Poland and Spain train with us," ABED ELAAL said. "We have a Korean coach now and I think our level has gone up."   ABBOUDA has chosen to base herself in France, but finds her success has had a big impact on her homeland. "Since an interview I did in Morocco, I've seen a lot of people asking about archery," she said.   Archers face many barriers in Africa, one of them being the cost of a bow. But even if archers have money to buy equipment, finding an outlet can be difficult. "There are no archery shops in Morocco," said ABBOUDA.   "There is no real money in archery. I do it for pleasure," ABBOUDA said. "If my participation in this event leads someone in Africa to pick up archery, that will be my money."   ONS bk/jf/bc/mr