The sky’s the limit for Merveille Zinsou

You would be hard-pressed to find any results from Benin’s Merveille Kpetchehoue Santi Zinsou this season so far, and it is not surprising as the number 19 African archer has hardly shot.

In fact, you have to go back to 2019 for the last time she shot internationally, as her last international competitions were the African Games in Morocco and the International Tournament of the West and Central African Archery Zones – also shorten TIZOCATA – in Côte d’Ivoire that year.

While the archery world was affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic, the continents of Africa and Oceania appeared to suffer the most in terms of competition.

As Europe, the Americas and Asia slowly came back to international competition, Africa and Oceania were left behind (the World Games in July were New Zealand’s first international competition since before the pandemic) due to their restrictions on travel in and out of the countries within.

But this lack of competition has not dampened the flame burning inside the Beninese athlete to practise the sport she loves, although next month will see her last event international event for the foreseeable future due to her own decision this time.

Up until the end of May, she was working as an IT Project Manager in a Beninese company, and in June, she moved to Senegal to continue her PhD project in artificial intelligence.

At the beginning of September, Merveille plans to participate in TIZOCATA again, which will take place in Benin, and after that, the 25-year-old will be forced to pause her sporting career because Senegal does not have an archery field that can allow me to shoot 70 metres.

That international career saw Zinsou appear at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, one of the best experiences in her career to date.

Despite losing her opener in straight sets against eventual bronze medallist, Lee Eun Gyeong, the event holds special memories.

“It was a great experience,” said Zinsou who, before moving to Senegal, was living in Abomey-Calavi, in the Atlantic department. “From these Games, I remember there was still a lot of work to do in Africa to raise the level and to compete with the great archery nations.”

That work is ongoing and, earlier this year, Zinsou and her fellow national team archers continued with their development, moving on from their shooting range at the Stade Mathieu Kérékou in Cotonou due to the stadium undergoing renovations.

This led to the national archery federation opening a training centre just over 15km away in Cococodji, and in addition, a shooting range is being built in Godomey just over 10km away from Cotonou.

“This means we can now work with the club to plan our training sessions,” Merveille explained. “Due to the academic and professional schedules of the club members, we work every week on Saturdays and Sundays. As international competitions approach, we then arrange to work every day.”

Participation in national competitions is recurrent. However, participation in international competitions depends on the annual financial means made available to the federation by the Benin Government’s Ministry of Sport.

“There is no lack of desire to go international,” she added. “We are all training for this, but the financial means are lacking.”

“We are all hoping for a change in the future and we will continue to work, but as far as equipment is concerned, we have difficulties buying sophisticated equipment, so we will continue with what we can afford.”

This lack of equipment has not hindered the sport inside the country, with Zinsou revealing that it is practised within all 12 departments of the country, but revealed the equipment issue is a big problem when looking to shoot outside.

“In Benin, archers work with locally-made bamboo bows and standard bows, as we have a minimal number of recurve bows available,” she said.

Only the athletes living in the Atlantic and Littoral departments of the country have the chance to shoot with recurve bows all the time. Archers from the other departments use it only when they are invited to participate in the national team’s preparation for international competitions.

A family connection turned the former judo player onto archery in 2008 and Zinsou has never looked back.

“I discovered archery thanks to my father, Paul, who was in charge of developing the sport in the west and central African zones,” she revealed. “I continued with both sporting disciplines until 2012, when I was African cadet champion in Morocco, but I was also taking exams at school and I had to choose to have more time to concentrate on the class lessons.”

“Ultimately, I decided on archery because it is a discipline of concentration that allowed me to know myself better, build my personality and gain confidence. It requires excellent self-control to manage one’s emotions and thus brings a lot of rigour to daily life.”

Despite taking a break from the sport in September to concentrate on her studies and life in Senegal, Zinsou admitted she will not be away from the sport for too long and fans of African archery will see her representing Benin again soon.

“Soon, if my own financial means allow it, I will take care of my participation in competitions and training, as my biggest dream is to participate in the Olympic Games and win a medal,” she said.

“As long as there is life, there is hope. The sky is the limit.”

Black and White photos courtesy of Kolawole Atcho Photography.