Nwankwo, Bright Sprint to Double Gold in Youth Olympic Games

Duro Ikhazuagbe

Nigeria’s teenage sprinters, Rosemary Nwankwo and Gift Bright, yesterday emerged fastest male and female athletes of the ongoing 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal.

In the girls’ 100m event of the track & field, 17-year-old Nwankwo who is Team Nigeria Captain led the field to hit the finish line first in 11.16secs personal best time. Nwankwo left the silver and bronze for United Arab Emirates’ Arwa Ali (11.41) with Qatar’s Dana Salem picking the bronze with 11.48.

Nwankwo is the third Nigerian girl to win the Youth Olympic Games 100m gold, following in the footsteps of Josephine Omaka at the inaugural edition in Singapore in 2010 and Rosemary Chukwuma in Argentina in 2018.

Nwankwo’s winning time came a little above the legal wind reading of 2.0m/s limit for record purposes. Her wind reading was +2.4 metres per second. It however did little to diminish the significance of her performance for Nigeria.

In the boys’ 100m, 15-year-old Bright completed the sprint double for Nigeria. He gave an outstanding performance in the boys’ final to win in a personal best of 10.28 seconds.

His gold was the first for Team Nigeria boys in the Youth Olympic Games 100m sprint.

China’s Zhang Hangyu finished second in 10.57, while Poland’s Szymon Dolega took bronze in 10.61.

Unlike the women’s final, Bright’s performance was achieved under legal wind conditions of +1.7m/s, making his 10.28-second mark eligible for recognition as a personal best.

It also takes Nigeria’s athletics gold medal tally at the Youth Olympic Games to five, further strengthening the country’s historical connection with the sprint events.

Nigeria also collected three silver medals at the 2018 edition, through Alaba Akintola in the men’s 100m and Ineh Oritsemeyiwa in the triple jump, among others.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Hon. Bukola Olopade, has urged Team Nigeria to surpass the country’s previous best performance at the Dakar 2026 Games coming to a close on November 12.

Yesterday, Ugoh Tejiri, advanced to the 400m semifinal event. Five athletes are representing Team Nigeria in the track and field event at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. Some other athletes who had concluded their events have returned home from the Games.