Yenihayat follows up number one seed, wins thriller gold match at Dakar

The favourite of the recurve under-18 women’s category was pushed hard but not denied as Dunya Yenihayat won a thriller to become champion at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.

The Puebla 2026 World Cup silver medallist had only conceded a singular set point on the run-up to facing USA’s Whang Ye-eun at the Abdoulaye Wade Stadium - against Spain’s eventual bronze medallist Sandra Perez Cumbreras in the semis - and that match contained her sole non-gold arrow after four matches.

She would drop only her second in the gold match - her very first arrow of the match - but with the competition and stakes rising, Whang’s equally impressive quality pushed Yenihayat to a shoot-off after tying the second set 30-30, winning the third 29-28 and fifth 29-27.

At 5-5, in a shoot-off, following a long hold and with just three seconds left on the countdown, however, Yenihayat got the X - less than three centimetres from the spider - thus making her the maiden Youth Olympic gold medallist from Türkiye.

“First of all, I feel very excited and happy and proud... all the feelings right now,” she said after the medal ceremony. “We shot a very good gold medal match; she’s a very strong archer.”

“I didn’t hear the other people, just ‘stay behind the line’ [from the judge]. I only heard my coach. He said to have fun, it’s good, you’re a very strong archer and we are a team.”

“Everything will be good and that’s it.”

Yenihayat, 17, was one of the favourites coming into the week, as she has already been involved in a raft of senior competitions for Türkiye’s national team - making the last three consecutive World Cup squads - and has a bronze [Shanghai 2025 mixed team] and silver medal to her name on archery’s premier international circuit.

She compounded that sentiment on Friday’s qualification when she posted 688 and 24 Xs, the highest score not only in the women’s but men’s discipline too.

Therefore, you’d perhaps think that coming into a 60-metre competition like the Youth Olympic Games, after spending most of her time internationally at 70-metre competitions like World Championships, would have felt almost like a downgrade in terms of the satisfaction one can get from a podium.

Her and coach Goktug Ergin’s reactions were anything but in the post-match celebrations, as they laughed and embraced once the result was confirmed.

Youth or adult Games, an Olympic gold is still an Olympic gold.

“It’s way easier... I love 60 metres, but it’s my last year. I’m so sad!” Yenihayat humorously admitted when asked about the transition back down to 60 metres for Dakar.

After he had emerged victorious in the Madrid World Cup this year, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games champion Mete Gazoz revealed afterwards how Türkiye’s athletes and camps are always geared towards peaking towards the end of the season, which for the seniors this year was the 2026 Mediterranean Games.

Whilst she still shot well in Taranto, getting silver alongside Gazoz in the mixed team and gold in the women’s team, Dakar was the one Yenihayat would have been working towards, and she got it in the most mentally demanding way archery can offer.

A job well done.

Action concludes in Dakar tomorrow in the mixed team finals, which you can watch live and for free here.

Podium: Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games

Full results on the event page.

Recurve men

1. Dunya Yenihayat, Türkiye 
2. Whang Ye-eun, USA
3. Sandra Perez Cumbreras, Spain