The standout result came in the barebow women’s team final, where the trio of Faith Adekogbe, Mandu Eteidung and Precious Fanny-Amun defeated hosts Algeria five-three to be crowned African champions, marking the country’s first team title on the continental stage.

Adekogbe was the outstanding individual performer of the campaign, leaving Oran with three medals in all.

Beyond her team gold, she reached the individual final as the number one seed, edging Algeria’s Malia Ait Messaoudene six-four in the quarter-final and compatriot Precious Fanny-Amun six-four in an all-Nigerian semi-final, before falling to Algeria’s Marwa Rahmoun in the gold medal match to settle for silver. She added a third medal, another silver, in the barebow mixed team alongside Abubakar Usman, who himself collected two silvers on the trip.

The barebow men’s team of Abdul Rahman Obasa, Abdulbasit Sanni and Usman completed the country’s barebow medal set with silver after also reaching the final against Algeria, with Nigeria reaching all three barebow team finals as well as the individual barebow women’s final.

In the compound events, Nigeria added three other medals. The compound men’s team of Aliyu Abubakar, Seun Emmanuel Oyeleke and Damilola Bartholomew Sholademi beat Algeria 205-183 in the semi-final before losing 182-197 to a Mauritius side led by two-time champion Adrien Charoux in the final.

The compound mixed team of Yvonne Hareke Evans-Uhegbu and Oyeleke also reached the final, seeing off Algeria 143-102 in the semi-final, before a narrow 138-142 defeat to Namibia secured silver.

Evans-Uhegbu capped a strong week with individual bronze in the compound women’s event, defeating Algeria’s Sihem Akli 129-90 in the bronze match after a semi-final loss to eventual finalist Jacqueline Coetzee of Namibia. Oyeleke finished the championships with two silvers from the compound team and mixed events.

Team Nigeria travelled to Oran with an 18-athlete delegation assembled by the Nigeria Archery Federation, the country’s biggest contingent ever sent to an African Championships, competing across six divisions under the auspices of World Archery Africa.

The championships, which ran from July 21 to 26, drew 138 archers, 89 men and 49 women, from 18 nations, with the Nigerian delegation led by federation president Mohammed Baba Abdullahi and vice-president Augustine Obiefuna Chigbolu, alongside coach Aliyu Garga.

The seven-medal haul builds on a rising run for Nigerian archery, following medals at the African Championships in Pretoria in 2022 and Nabeul, Tunisia, in 2023, and gold at the 2025 African Championships and Africa’s inaugural Run Archery Tournament, both in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Abdullahi described the outcome as a turning point for the sport in the country.

“Seven medals and our first team gold, this is the day Nigeria stopped competing to take part and started competing to win. And we are only just beginning,” he said.

The federation’s director of marketing, Emmanuel Oyeleke, said the achievement should serve as a springboard for greater investment in the sport at grassroots level.

The federation has appealed to corporate organisations, brands and individuals to support the national team through sponsorship, athlete adoption, equipment supply, travel logistics and media partnerships, citing the high costs of competing at continental level.