By Jacob Ajom
Nigeria’s national archery team, The Flames have won the 15th TIZOCATA Open Archery Tournament, held in Abuja penultimate week. Competing against Algeria, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Pakistan, Togo, Tunisia and Zimbabwe the Nigerian team won 34 of the 45 medals on offer, including 13 of the 16 gold medals, and finished comfortably as the overall winners of the championship.
Of the 36 archers who wore the national colours, 29 ended the tournament with at least one medal. Côte d’Ivoire finished a distant second in the medals table with two gold medals, followed by Guinea.
Reacting to the victory, the National Director Technical of the Nigeria Archery Federation (NAFED), Damilola B. Sholademi praised the performance of the Nigerian contingent and hinted that there was still more to come from the federation in the coming years.
Asked if the outstanding performance of the team was because they were on home soil, Sholademi said, “The TIZOCATA result did not come out of nowhere. Only three months earlier, at the African Archery Championships in Oran, Algeria, The Flames won one gold, five silver and one bronze medal and finished sixth among all participating nations. That was a landmark for a team whose earlier continental outings had produced just two silver medals.”
Continuing, he said, “ what we saw here is the fruit of patient, deliberate work. Our archers have trained harder, our coaches have grown in confidence, and our structures are getting stronger.”
Archer aiming at target
He said that several of the Nigerian archers deserved special mention for their enormous contributions to the overall success of the team. “Tobi Bello, Na’allah Abdulhakeem, Enyenihi Kachollom, among others did so well. Our team captain, Aliyu Abubakar who won bronze in Compound Men and silver in the Compound Mixed Team led the squad with steadiness and care throughout the four days.”
