Espinosa Claims First Gold in Dakar Pool
Swimming events at the opening day of the Dakar Youth Olympic Games delivered five gold medals at the outdoor venue. Elvira Espinosa of Ecuador secured the historic first gold of the games by winning the women’s 400-meter freestyle. Although it is an outdoor pool, I adapted very well,
Espinosa said after the race. I even set my personal best, and I am very satisfied with my performance.
Additional swimming titles went to Argentina’s Dieleck in the women’s 200-meter backstroke with a time of 2:10.05, and New Zealand’s Muchilahondo in the men’s 200-meter backstroke at 1:59.15. In the butterfly events, Russia’s Fokina claimed the women’s 100-meter title in 59.81 seconds, while Egypt’s Zain Ali won the men’s 100-meter butterfly in 52.16 seconds.
At the Dakar Exhibition Centre, wushu featured as an official medal sport in an Olympic series for the first time. Forty-seven athletes representing 46 countries and regions competed across four events: men’s and women’s changquan all-around and men’s and women’s taijiquan all-around. Chinese competitor Lin Yilei advanced to the elimination rounds by placing first in the men’s changquan preliminary round.
United States athlete Breydan finished third in the men’s taijiquan preliminaries. I think this is a very important moment for wushu,
Breydan said. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going, bring wushu further to the world, and let more people understand it.
Judo Champions Crowned on Opening Day
Judo competition concluded with three weight class finals on Nov. 1. Azerbaijan’s Talibov captured the men’s 55kg title, Ukraine’s Haidarov won the men’s 66kg gold, and Turkey’s Yuksel secured the women’s 44kg championship.
Following his victory, Haidarov described the tournament as a stepping stone toward his broader career ambitions. This competition is a small step toward the Olympic stage and realizing a bigger dream,
he said.
Chinese Delegations Advance Across Multiple Disciplines
Chinese youth athletes recorded strong performances across badminton, rowing, volleyball, and table tennis. On the badminton courts, Zhang Yixin defeated Finland’s Kandala 2-0, and Hong Tianyue overcame Indonesia’s Aksara 2-1 to secure opening victories in their respective women’s and men’s singles group matches.
At the Saly venue for coastal rowing beach sprints, the Chinese mixed duo of Su Juntao and Liu Lili defeated Mexico with a time of 2:16.57 to advance to the quarterfinals of the mixed relay. Su also placed second in the men’s single second-round time trial to reach the round of 16. In beach volleyball, the Chinese pairing of Zhuang Ming and Qi Siyu beat Paraguay’s Sofía Martínez and Gómez Martínez 2-0, and with two wins out of three group matches, advanced to the knockout phase as the second seed in their group.
Mixed Results on the Table Tennis Tables
In Jamniadji, China’s table tennis players split their results between singles and mixed doubles competition. Yao Ruixuan earned 3-0 victories against Venezuela’s Ferrer and Algeria’s Morris in the women’s singles group stage, while Li Hechen defeated Germany’s Lindrer 3-0 and Turkey’s Ojar 3-1 in the men’s bracket. However, Li and Yao later lost 3-1 to Japan’s Ryusei Kawakami and Miku Matsushima in the mixed doubles competition.
Reflecting on her singles matches, Yao noted that her execution fell short of expectations due to cautious play. I hope I can release myself later and play every match well,
she said. Li added that he approached his matches with a challenger’s mindset, emphasizing the need to play game by game and fight for every single point without any relaxation.
