Taniya grapples her way to silver and Shourya hurdles to bronze at Youth Olympic Games

Indian sportspersons continued to impress at the Youth Olympic Games 2026 as Taniya grappled her way to a silver medal in the women’s 75kg beach wrestling event and Shourya Ambure won a bronze medal in the women’s 100m hurdles event in Dakar.

Taniya lost 2-1 to the People’s Republic of China’s Min Zhao, the 2025 Under-17 world wrestling champion in the women’s 69kg category, in the gold medal match at the Saly Beach West venue.

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The silver made Taniya India’s first-ever Youth Olympics medallist in beach wrestling, with the sport making its debut at the multisport meet at Dakar 2026.

Taniya arrived in Dakar having won bronze in the women’s freestyle 69kg category at the Under-17 World Wrestling Championships 2026 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and silver at the Under-17 Asian Championships earlier this year.

The Indian wrestler defeated USA’s Matilda Hruby 3-1 in the semifinals to secure her place in the gold medal match. Hruby had won the women’s 75kg title at the Under-17 World Beach Wrestling Championships 2026 in Azerbaijan after winning all five of her bouts by fall.

Earlier, Taniya progressed to the knockouts after winning all three of her Group B wrestling bouts.  She began with a 3-1 victory over Germany’s Mia Bauer before defeating Greece’s Vasiliki Karavanou 3-0. Both wrestlers were medallists at the Under-17 European Beach Wrestling Championships earlier this year.

Taniya defeated USA’s Matilda Hruby 3-1 in the semifinals to secure her place in the gold medal match

Taniya then beat Estonia’s Merily Vaester 4-1 in her final group bout to advance to the semifinals with a perfect record.

Deepanshu Khokhar was eliminated from the men’s 80kg beach wrestling competition after losing all three of his group-stage bouts.

Dhinidhi and Tirthank created history for India at the Youth Olympics 2026 in Dakar

The silver was India’s seventh medal at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics, taking the country’s tally to three silver and four bronze medals.

Earlier, Khushbu Rajakbhai Darjada won silver in women’s 63kg judo while Tanvi Patri finished runner-up in women’s singles badminton.

Dhinidhi Desinghu bagged two bronze medals in the women’s 100m and 200m freestyle swimming events, while Tirthank Pegu claimed bronze in the men’s 200m butterfly.

Rajkumari Lanchenbi Chanu won India’s other bronze medal in the women’s changquan combined wushu event.

Shourya is first Indian woman to win an athletics medal

Shourya Ambure won the bronze medal in the women’s 100m hurdles event. The 17-year-old Indian athlete clocked a new personal best of 13.59 seconds to finish third in the nine-woman final at the Complexe Iba Mar Diop.

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The People’s Republic of China’s Zhang Keyi won the gold medal with a personal best of 13.17s, while France’s Anna Peeters took silver in 13.57s.

Shourya Ambure clocked 13.77s, also a personal best, to finish second behind Peeters (13.62s) in the second semifinal and qualify for the medal race.

Shourya Avinash Ambure now stands as the first Indian woman to win a Youth Olympics medal in athletics. Pics: X

Shourya now stands as the first Indian woman to win a Youth Olympics medal in athletics. Overall, it was the country’s fifth podium finish in track and field at the junior meet.

Durgesh Kumar Pal won silver in the boys’ 400m hurdles at Singapore 2010, where Arjun Kumar also claimed silver in the boys’ discus throw.

At Buenos Aires 2018, Suraj Panwar won silver in the boys’ 5km race walk while Praveen Chithravel took bronze in the boys’ triple jump.

Shourya previously won bronze in the women’s 100m hurdles at the Asian Under-18 Athletics Championships 2025 in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, clocking 13.80 seconds.

Shourya’s bronze was also India’s first athletics medal at Dakar 2026 and the country’s eighth overall at this edition, taking the tally to three silver and five bronze medals.

India’s three silver medals in Dakar came through Khushbu Rajakbhai Darjada in judo, Tanvi Patri in badminton and Taniya in beach wrestling.

Dhinidhi Desinghu, who won two swimming bronze medals, fellow swimmer Tirthank Pegu and wushu athlete Rajkumari Lanchenbi Chanu are India’s other bronze medallists.