Top seed Franck Eyeni carried his strong form from yesterday’s qualifications into the elimination rounds, defeating tournament favourite Israel Madaye to reach the recurve men’s gold medal match at the Abidjan 2025 African Archery Championships.
Although Madaye – the only recurve men’s competitor in Abidjan who took part in the Paris 2024 Games – posted a modest 606 in the 72-arrow ranking round, it was reasonable to expect that his Olympic experience would help him recover, refocus and progress to the later stages.
The 37-year-old archer from Chad, however, appeared lacklustre at Stade Robert Champroux de Marcory. He narrowly overcame 19-year-old Stephane Koffi Gadeka 6-4 in the opening elimination round, including a fourth set in which he scored just 19.
Madaye seemed to regain some rhythm in the quarterfinals, sweeping Landry Damité Tamini in straight sets, but his performance drew little sympathy from the local crowd, as both Tamini and Gadeka are Ivorian.
All eyes then turned to Eyeni, who was tasked with preventing a clean sweep of Ivorian recurve men exiting their home championships. He just about managed it, edging past Madaye 6-4.
The Nabeul 2023 mixed team silver medallist was inconsistent, scoring 20, 29, 22, 28 and 22. Madaye, cumulatively, matched Eyeni’s total of 99 across four ends with 24, 24, 26, 25, tying the match at 4-4. The recurve set system produced a dramatic finale, as a missed arrow and a two from the Chadian ended his gold medal hopes in his sixth African Archery Championships.
Considering Madaye is one of the continent’s most experienced international archers – having competed in the Indoor World Series, two World Archery Championships and the Umag 2023 European Grand Prix – it remains surprising that he has yet to claim an individual medal at African level.
