Team SA at the Dakar Games: How each athlete performed

Team SA completed their 2026 Dakar Youth Olympics campaign with a total of 11 medals, comprising three gold, five silver and three bronze. It’s their highest haul in four such Games. At Singapore 2010 they won nine medals, at Nanjing 2014 one medal and at Buenos Aires 2018 five medals.

Athletics produced six medals, swimming three and rowing (coastal beach sprints) and rugby sevens one each.

Here’s a detailed look at how each Team SA athlete performed in Dakar.

ARCHERY

Benjamin Oosthuizen lost in the 1/16 elimination round

Layla Viljoen lost in the 1/16 elimination round

Viljoen and Oosthuizen placed 20th in the ranking round

ATHLETICS

Enrique Bosch won BRONZE in the 110m hurdles, with a time of 13.45sec in both the semi-finals and final

Matao Le Roux won GOLD in the high jump, with a clearance of 2.16m in the one-off final

Darius Botha won BRONZE with a best effort of 19.23m in the shot put one-off final

Jacobus van der Merwe finished 4th in the men’s javelin final with a best throw of 64.29m

John-Pierre Theron won SILVER with a distance of 71.79m in the hammer throw one-off final

Janelle Kirkpatrick reached the final of the 100m hurdles where she finished 5th in 13.78.

Megan Nieman won GOLD with a time of 57.15sec, with a dramatic late surge to pip Switzerland’s Mina Hirsbrunner (57.84)

Milan Blignaut won SILVER in the women’s high jump after she cleared 1.74 at her second attempt. Gold was secured with a 1.80m height

Shiloh Snijders placed 4th in the one-off discus final with a distance of 48.44m

Lara Stander finished 4th in 4:31.50, just 0.40sec off the bronze medal. Gold was won in 4:28.02 and silver in 4:29.86

BADMINTON

Misha Bredell lost all three of his group matches 2-0, to Oussama Keddou (Morocco), Yung Neng Chang (Taipei) and Berkay Ceyhan (Turkey)

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Duncan Davids and Evra King lost all three of their pool matches 2-0, against Norway, Chile and Nicaragua

CYCLING

Yahyaa Martin finished 27th in the men’s road race, 59sec behind the winner

Yahyaa Martin placed 30th in the men’s individual time trial in 11:48.33, which was 1:38.13 behind the gold medallist

Madison Bateson finished 12th in the women’s road race, in a bunched sprint

Madison Bateson placed 30th in the women’s individual time trial in 13:45.16, which was 2:12.59 behind the gold medallist

FENCING

Nikita Venturas won two and lost four of her matches in the pool competition and didn’t progress to the knockout stages

EQUESTRIAN

Bo Reed progressed through two qualifying rounds and in the final had a flawless jumping round which left her 4th, but one of 12 riders who went clear. Those 12 riders went into a jump off, where only three riders had clear rounds. Reed and her horse Carrera De Groom placed 8th overall in the final tally.

GYMNASTICS

Haylee van Rensburg performed best of the Team SA trio in the sub-division qualification. She placed 40th with a total of 47.432 points

Lila du Plessis was 45th in the sub-division qualification with 40.299 points

Zia Davids was 48th in the sub-division qualification with 39.532 points.

Gethin Davies-Vanteveelde had the best results from the Team SA trio in the sub-division qualification, with 70.830 points for 32nd position

Frederick Davies-Vanteveelde accumulated 69.931 points in the sub-division qualification, to finish 36th

Pfulemlo Shibambu scored 60.998 points for 56th position in the sub-division qualification

JUDO

Adriaan Schutte lost by Ippon (112-0) to Vladimiros Charalampous (Cyprus) in the -81kg elimination round of 16. He then lost by Ippon (100-0) to Vazha Gengashvili (Georgia) in the repechage round of 8

ROWING – COASTAL BEACH SPRINTS

Callum Dreyer qualified for the knockout rounds where he beat Justas Domarkus (Lithuania) in the last 16, Ondrej Zizka (Czechia) in the quarter-finals, Amad Moor (Hungary) in the semi-finals and Diego Molina Martinez (Spain) to win the GOLD medal

SKATEBOARDING

Molemo Losaba finished 10th in his heat with a total of 109.85 points. Only the first six skaters from the heat qualified for the final.

SWIMMING

Matthew Goller was eliminated in the heats of the 100m freestyle with a time of 53.22

Matthew Goller was eliminated in the heats of the 200m freestyle with a time of 1:53.35

Matthew Foller finished 4th in the fastest heat 400m freestyle final in 3:37.91

Eric Kotze reached the final of the 50m backstroke where he finished 4th in a PB 26.16

Eric Kotze reached the final of the 50m freestyle where he finished 8th in 23.76

Eric Kotze reached the final of the 50m butterfly where he finished 5th in in 24.77

Chanel Veldsman qualified for the final of the 100m breaststroke where she won SILVER in 1:09.49

Chanel Veldsman qualified for the final of the 200m breaststroke where she won BRONZE in 2:30.87

Leah Markgraaff was eliminated in the heats of the 100m freestyle with a time of 1:00.87

Leah Markgraaff reached the final of the 200m freestyle where she finished 8th in 2:08.07

Leah Markgraaff finished the one-off 400m freestyle heat final in 4:26.13, which secured her the SILVER medal

BEACH WRESTLING

Dune van Zyl lost two of her three pool matches in the -75kg category. She beat Inaya Lahssini of Morocco 3-0, lost to eventual gold medallist Elisabeth Diatta of Senegal 5-1 and lost to Matila Hruby (USA) 5-0. Van Zyl exited the competition at the group stage.

TRIATHLON

Taylor Foster finished 5th in the field of 32. She had an overall time of 1:00:47, 1min 49sec off the winner and 60sec behind the bronze medallist.

RUGBY SEVENS

Team SA won the SILVER medal after being edged out by France 26-19 in the final. Team SA had been unbeaten until then, with pool wins against Senegal (43-5), Canada (24-17) and Germany (34-7). The young men then beat Argentina 24-12 in the semi-finals to qualify for the final.

SA MEDALS (11)

GOLD (3)

Callum Dreyer (boys rowing – coastal beach sprints)

Mateo le Roux (athletics, boys high jump)

Megan Nieman (athletics, women’s 400m H)

SILVER (5)

Leah Markgraaff (swimming, girls 400m freestyle)

Chanel Veldsman (swimming, girls 100m breaststroke)

John-Pierre Theron (athletics, boys hammer throw)

Rugby Sevens (boys)

Milan Blignaut (athletics, women’s high jump)

BRONZE (3)

Chanel Veldsman (swimming, girls 200m breaststroke)

Darius Botha (athletics, boys shot put)

Enrique Bosch (athletics, boys 110m H)

CODES BY MEDALS

6 Athletics

3 Swimming

1 Rowing – Coastal Beach Sprints

1 Rugby Sevens