Dunya Yenihayat follows up top seed with thrilling Youth Olympic gold
The favourite in 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 Hyundai Archery World Cup silver medallist had conceded just one set point on her way to facing USA’sWhang Ye-eun at the Abdoulaye Wade Stadium. That came against eventual bronze medallist Sandra Perez Cumbreras of Spain in the semifinals, and the match also featured her only arrow outside the gold – the two central rings of the target, worth nine and 10 points – after four matches.
The Turkish archer would drop only her second non-gold arrow in the gold medal match – with her very first shot – but, as the competition and stakes rose, Whang’s equally impressive performance pushed Yenihayat to a shoot-off. The pair tied the second set 30-30, with Whang winning the third 29-28 and the fifth 29-27.
At 5-5, the match went to a shoot-off. After a long hold, with just three seconds left on the countdown, Yenihayat hit the X-ring, the central zone within the 10-ring used to break ties in qualification. Her arrow landed less than three centimetres from the centre of the target, while Whang’s was less than a centimetre away, just outside the X-ring. It was enough to make Yenihayat Türkiye’s first individual Youth Olympic archery champion.
“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, having already competed in a raft of senior events for Türkiye’s national team. She had been selected for the last three consecutive World Cup squads and already had a bronze medal in the Shanghai 2025 mixed team event as well as a silver medal on archery’s premier international circuit.
She underlined her credentials in Friday’s qualification, scoring 688 with 24 arrows in the X-ring – the highest score in both the women’s and men’s disciplines.
You might therefore think that competing at 60 metres at the Youth Olympic Games, having spent much of her international career shooting at 70 metres at events such as the World Archery Championships, would feel like a step down in terms of the satisfaction of reaching a podium.
But her and coach Goktug Ergin’s reactions during the post-match celebrations told a different story, as they laughed and embraced once the result was confirmed.
Youth or senior 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 admitted with a laugh when asked about the transition back to 60 metres for Dakar.
After winning the Madrid World Cup this year, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games champion Mete Gazoz revealed how Türkiye’s athletes and training camps are geared towards peaking towards the end of the season, which for the senior team this year was the 2026 Mediterranean Games.
While Yenihayat also performed well in Taranto, winning silver alongside Gazoz in the mixed team event and gold in the women’s team, Dakar was the competition she would have been working towards – and she delivered in the most mentally demanding way archery can offer.
A job well done.
Action concludes in Dakar tomorrow with 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 women
- Dunya Yenihayat, Türkiye
- Whang Ye-eun, USA
- Sandra Perez Cumbreras, Spain
