Beginners’ guide to archery at the 2019 African Games in Rabat

For the first time in history, recurve archery is on the programme of the African Games. And not only will Rabat crown the first champions at this multisport event but it will also qualify six athletes to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The first two will be awarded to the winner of the mixed team competition at the 2019 African Games. The remaining four spots, two for women and two for men, will be distributed to the top-finishing individuals.

These are the six spots reserved for archers from Africa at the next Olympics.

Factsheet: Rabat 2019

• Venue: Moulay Rachid National Sports Centre in Salé
• Dates: 26-30 August
• Number of athletes: 64 from 19 nations (40 recurve men, 24 recurve women)
• Number of medals: 5 (two individual, three team)

Three facts

1) The Olympic quota places. One of 12 countries will win two spots at Tokyo 2020 in Rabat when they are crowned mixed team champion since no African nation qualified a place to the Games at the world championships.

Algeria, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Guinea, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Tunisia and Zimbabwe are competing in the mixed team competition at these African Games.

The remaining four places will be given to the highest-finishing individuals.

2) Archery’s continental multisport debut. The African Games were first held in 1965 and have been organised every four years since 1973. This year’s Games in Rabat are the 12th edition – and the first to include archery.

3) African Champion. Kenya’s Shehzana Anwar arrives in Rabat as the reigning African Archery Champion since winning in Windhoek, Namibia in 2016. Anwar also competed at the last Olympics in Rio.

Schedule

• Tuesday 27 August: Qualification
• Wednesday 28 August: Team and mixed team eliminations
• Thursday 29 August: Individual eliminations
• Friday 30 August: Finals

Favourites

Four archers worth watching during the competition in Rabat.

Marlyse Hourtou, Chad : A resident athlete at the World Archery Excellence Centre, Marlyse shot the highest ranking round at the world championships of any African archer since the tournament moved to 70 metres in 2015. She scored 623 points in ’s-Hertogenbosch, seeding 87th, before losing to experienced Swede Christine Bjerendal.

Youssof Tolba, Egypt : Tolba qualified 10th at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games before his first two matches went to shoot-offs. He won the first, eight to seven, but then lost the second, 10 to eight. How much has the now-18-year-old progressed since that experience?

Areneo David, Malawi : Having made Malawi’s archery debut at the Olympic Games courtesy an invitational spot for Rio 2016, Areneo’s job now is to qualify a place for Tokyo.

Quinn Reddig, Namibia : Bronze medallist at the last Youth Olympic Games in the mixed nation mixed team competition. Reddig, with 18-year-old Adriaan Grobler, will shoot in the Rabat pairs event.

Competition format

Recurve athletes shoot at 122cm targets set 70 metres away for juniors and 60 metres away for cadets, with 10 scoring zones awarding 10 to one points. Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to seed athletes, and is followed by an elimination bracket resolved using set system matchplay.

Athletes shoot sets of three arrows – and the highest-scoring athlete in the set receives two set points; a draw awards one set point to each athlete. The first athlete to six set points wins the match.

Mixed teams shoot sets of four arrows and teams shoot sets of six arrows, two arrows per athlete per set. The first team or mixed team to five set points wins the match.

The archery competitions at the 2019 African Games take place on 26-30 August in Rabat, Morocco.