Roux’s dramatic finish highlight of finals at African Championships

Wian Roux flinched on his penultimate arrow, let his bow down, redrew and – with his time on the clock quickly ticking away – managed a nine before, moments later, finishing with a determined 10 to win the recurve men’s title at the African Championships.

The victory was perhaps all the more special because the event was being held in his home city of Pretoria.

“I can’t describe how it finally feels to win a big event. The stage has you nervous, as every archer who has shot at a big event knows, the stage has you nervous and I’m just very happy that I could pull through at the last minute,” said the 20-year-old, who was a Youth Olympian at Buenos Aires 2018.

Wian beat Côte d’Ivoire’s Franck Eyeni in that match – the last of the event – over a topsy-turvy five sets.

Behind Roux in the coaching box was his father, former international compound archer Patrick, now the president of the national archery federation and instrumental in bringing this tournament to South Africa.

“We just spoke about how to win, no negative comments. He just kept telling me, ‘keep them in the middle, keep pulling and stay calm’,” said Wian, who also shot the winning arrow (another 10) in the recurve men’s team final.

The home nation dominated the medal table in Pretoria, winning 7 gold medals and collecting 12 podiums in total.

Long-time international Jeanine van Kradenburg won the compound women’s event, Christian Beyers de Klerk took compound men’s gold and Henk Brummer won the first-ever continental barebow title – all for South Africa.

Anne-Marie Yedagne broke the host’s sweep of the individual events, the Ivorian archer defeating Kenyan Olympian (and defending African Champion) Kuki Anwar to recurve women’s gold. 

Yedagne, alongside Fatou Gbane and Esmei Diombo, also won the recurve women’s team event for Côte d’Ivoire – but she was prevented the triple by surprise Algerian recurve mixed pair champions Yasmine Bellal and Imadeddine Bakri.

The 12th edition of the African Championships in Pretoria were the first to take place since 2016 – and the first-ever to be filmed.

Some 66 archers from 16 countries participated.

The next African Championships are expected to take place in late 2023 and include a qualification event for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Winners: 2022 African Championships

• Recurve men: Wian Roux, South Africa
• Recurve women: Anne-Marie Yedagne, Côte d’Ivoire
• Compound men: Christian Beyers de Klerk, South Africa
• Compound women: Jeanine van Kradenburg, South Africa
• Recurve men team: South Africa
• Recurve women team: Côte d’Ivoire
• Recurve mixed team: Algeria
• Compound men team: South Africa
• Compound mixed team: South Africa

Medal table: 2022 African Championships

Countries with at least one gold medal listed.

1.  South Africa: 11 (7 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze)
2.  Côte d’Ivoire: 4 (2 gold, 2 silver)
3.  Algeria: 3 (1 gold, 2 bronze)

Archers from eight countries collected the 28 medals (10 gold, 10 silver, 8 bronze) awarded at the 2022 African Championships. Four para archers across four competition categories also competed.