Nigeria’s swimmer missed a medal by two places earlier in the week, and the two table tennis flagbearers were out after single group matches. For the first half of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, Nigeria had nothing to show for its trip. On Sunday, two sprinters changed that in a single day.
Rosemary Nwankwo opened the account in the girls’ 100m final, winning in a wind-assisted 11.16 seconds. The UAE’s Arwa Ali took silver in 11.41, and Qatar’s Dana Salem took bronze in 11.48. Nwankwo was the athlete who led the 19-strong Nigerian team into the opening ceremony, and she had posted the fastest time of the semi-finals on her way to the final. She is only the third Nigerian to win the event, after Josephine Omaka in Singapore in 2010 and Rosemary Chukwuma in Buenos Aires in 2018.
Later that day, Gift Bright finished the job. He won the boys’ final in a personal best of 10.28 seconds, with a legal wind of +1.7. Zhang Hangyu of China was second in 10.57, and Szymon Dolega was third in 10.61. Nwankwo had already shown her form this year. She won the girls’ 100m at the African Youth Games in Luanda in December, a competition that doubled as a qualifier for Dakar.
The result is bigger than two medals. The Youth Olympics is a Games that Nigeria had gone into without a medal of any kind until Sunday, and Dakar is the first Olympic sporting event ever held on African soil. Nigeria’s best return before this was at Singapore 2010, four medals including two golds. Two golds in one day already match that gold tally, and the Games run until 13 November.
The double was also never possible before. Bright is the first Nigerian to win the boys’ 100m at the Youth Olympics. Until Sunday, the country had a girls’ champion and no boys’ champion at all.
