Top seed Franck Eyeni carried on his form from yesterday in qualifications to defeat the tournament favourite Israel Madaye and reach the recurve men gold medal match at the Abidjan 2025 African Archery Championships.
Although Madaye – the only recurve men entry in Abidjan that featured in Paris 2024 Olympic Games last year – dropped a lowly 606 in the 72-arrow round, it still would have been wise to suggest that he’d draw on his Olympic experience, get over the disappointment and steer through to the stage.
The 37 year old archer from Chad however was lacklustre at the Stade Robert Champroux de Marcory before and after he faced Eyeni, scraping past 19 year old Stephane Koffi Gadeka 6-4 which included him scoring just 19 in the fourth set.
It looked like just a blip for Madaye though as he then swept past Landry Damité Tamini 6-0 in the quarterfinals, making him an unpopular amongst the crowd with Tamini and Gadeka both hailing from Côte d’Ivoire.
It was all eyes on Eyeni then to deny an Ivorian recurve men wipeout happen at home and he just about did that, edging past Madaye 6-4.
The Nabeul 2023 mixed team silver medallist was slightly inconsistent, dropping 20, 29, 22, 28 and then 22 again in the fifth end but Madaye – accumulatively speaking – garnered the exact same score of 99 across four ends with 24, 24, 26, 25 leaving it 4-4.
The drama of the recurve set-system was fully vindicated shortly afterwards as a missed arrow and a 2 in the final set from the Chadian therefore was a gut wrenching end to his gold medal aspirations in what is his sixth edition of the African Archery Championships.
Considering he is one of the most experienced archers on the international circuit from the continent – having competed previously in the Indoor World Series, two World Championships and the Umag 2023 European Grand Prix – it’s a surprise Madaye is yet to medal individually at least in Africa.
