Zim athlete Mattew Gratwicke went over to see our friends in Nigeria for the 2026 Zen Archery Lagos International Open Tournament. Here are a few thoughts from him…
“On the 16th June, I landed in Nigeria, blessed with a warm welcome by the amazing archers of Lagos. Coming to the Zen Archery Lagos International Open Tournament a day early gave me a chance to familiarise myself with the hot and humid conditions of Lagos, get acquainted with air conditioners, get to know my soon to be comrades and check up on my bow in an unofficial practice to see if it hopefully travelled better than I did over the 12 hours of travel to get there.
The next day was official practice; my first sight of the main venue, Onikan Stadium, my first time meeting most of my fellow competitors, and my first taste of performing in the infamous Lagos weather: burning hot or soaking wet. Clothes were dampened, but my spirit was not as I got back to the hotel, grateful for the lesson of learning to shoot in the rain, and went on to prepping for the first scoring day the day after.
The day after was the 2 qualification rounds, which admittedly had a rough start. Between my shooting partner and myself attempting to use our very broken french to talk with the 3rd Cote d’Ivoirian french speaking person on our target, and my arrows all going far right for an unknown reason to me at the time, (which then revealed itself as the angle of the sun and glare of the pitch a bit later), but halfway through the scorecard shooting perked up and we were back! After somewhat saving the scorecard at 70 meters, I had a few hours left until the next 72 arrows at 50 meters, which after a sharp stab of pain and gurgling in my stomach alerted me to, was going to be a long one… Thankfully by the power of (WADA approved) painkillers and anti-emetics, I survived the 720 with a respectable score, and firmed the traffic clogged ride back to the hotel, where I was in for a long night…
After surviving the night, which gave yet another invaluable lesson – watch what you eat. Wether it was the airplane food, an off cut of meat or something else, it has taught me to excersize extreme caution when in competition. Regardless, it was crunch time – Elimination day. First was the 50 meters. Facing me was an archer from Cote d’Ivoire, who I didn’t know at the time but was destined for a silver medal. Unfortunately for myself, I got knocked out 7 – 3, but it was not over yet. Coming in to the 70 meter eliminations, I was up against the top Nigerian archer in my first round. Shooting through heavy rain, howling wind, and even at some point thunder and lightning (which added a small delay until it stopped thankfully), he took an early lead of 4 – 2, which I bounced back on to take a win at 6 – 4 for the final score. Ahead of me lay my toughest challenge yet – another archer from Cote d’Ivoire, this time the future gold medalist. I took an early lead of 2 – 0, but sadly through a combination of failing bow fitness/weakened health and impressive shooting by my opponent, I fell in the quarter finals 6 – 2 and placed 8th overall out of 17 participants.
Overall ZALIOT 3.0 was a phenomenal experience, overflowing with camaraderie, invaluable lessons for my inexperienced self, and of course the thrill of archery. I am grateful for the experience and for what it has done for me as both an archer and a person, and even with some pretty low lows, this has been an incredible highlight to my archery career.”
Want to know more about ZALIOT 3.0 –> ‘We proved it is possible in Nigeria’
Get to know our friends over in Lagos –> Zen Archery
