Kenyan archer Shehzana aims for gold at African Games
By Amos Abuga, August 9, 2019
Former African archery champion Shehzana Anwar has set her sights at another continental title, the Africa Games to be held in Morocco, being her focus this time.
Shehzana, who won gold at the Africa Archery Championships in Windhoek, Namibia in 2016, dreams of hitting the bull’s eye with her first shot in a competition set to run from August 19-31 in the four Moroccan cities of Rabat, Casablanca, El Jadida and Khemisset.
Kenya has for long relied on athletics for medals at the continental event but with archery among the 22 disciplines the country will send to Morocco. The 30-year-old is confident of changing that.
“I am definitely more mature than I was three years ago when I took part in the Rio Olympics,” said Shehzana, who was Kenya’s flag bearer at the 2016 Rio Games’ opening ceremony.
“While the target is the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, we are not going to Morocco to make the numbers but help the country and win medals too,” added Shehzana, who is among the 290 Kenyan contingent to the event, previously known as the All Africa Games.
Shehzana, who lost to Ki Bo-bae of South Korea during the first round of the women’s individual competition in Rio, is also aiming to improve her world ranking which stood at 195 after the 2016 Olympics.
“I was among the best 200 individuals in the event after the Rio Olympics and my target is to get to the top 150 and maybe better,” she added.
She hopes to give back to society by mentoring as many young archers as possible. “What many upcoming athletes do not know is if one becomes shaky, shooting will definitely be affected.
Therefore, it is important to have a strong stamina,” she said.