The final line-ups for the recurve men’s and women’s archers have today been confirmed for the upcoming Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.
Like at the previous edition of the event in Buenos Aires in 2018 – Dakar was postponed from its original year of 2022 to 2026 due to the pandemic – there will be 32 archers each in the men’s and women’s under-18 categories, with all athletes shooting in their respective gender’s individual discipline. 50 of the 64 athletes will also compete in the mixed team tournament.
Quota places for countries were based on an open ranking system, in which archers had to record a minimum qualification score, which you can read more about here.
Dakar will be the fourth Youth Olympic Games at which archery has been contested, following Singapore 2010, Nanjing 2014 and Buenos Aires 2018, and also the first to be held in Africa.
Although there aren’t any entries from the host nation, the Senegalese capital will see strong African participation from 6-10 November, with 13 archers in total hailing from the continent.
Two of them are Egyptians Ismail Ezzeldin and Nouray Elsayed, who will be hoping to replicate the success of fellow countryman Ibrahim Sabry, the Singapore 2010 under-21 men’s champion and thus one of the very first archery gold medallists at the Games.
Ezzeldin, in fact, is probably the African competitor most likely to reach the top of the podium, having crowned himself the recurve under-18 men’s African champion a few months ago at Oran 2026.
He and Elsayed are joined by archers from Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritius, South Africa and Tunisia.
