Youth Olympic Games archery begins in Dakar

Archery returns to the Youth Olympic Games today, with qualifying under way at Abdoulaye Wade Stadium in Dakar, Senegal. Sixty-four archers from 39 countries are in the field, part of a Games that brings roughly 2,700 athletes in 25 sports to the Senegalese capital, according to World Archery's preview.

Dakar is the fourth edition of the Youth Olympic Games, following Singapore 2010, Nanjing 2014 and Buenos Aires 2018. It was originally scheduled for 2022 and was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also the first time a multisport Olympic event of any kind has been held in Africa.

The format is narrow by design. Only recurve is on the programme, with under-18 men's and women's individual events and a mixed team competition. There is no separate team event for men or women, because each nation could be awarded a maximum of two quota places. The 64 places were allocated through an open ranking system, and archers had to reach a minimum qualification score to be eligible.

The week runs on a compact schedule:

  • Friday 6 November: qualifying
  • Saturday 7 November: eliminations
  • Sunday 8 November: men's finals
  • Monday 9 November: women's finals
  • Tuesday 10 November: mixed team finals

Olympic Broadcasting Services is producing live coverage of eliminations and finals, and live scores are available on the World Archery website.

The highest-ranked entrants on the senior world rankings are Slovenia's Samo Vrbec in the men's event (world rank 81) and Türkiye's Dunya Yenihayat in the women's (world rank 34). Neither is a top-ranked senior, which suggests an open field in which a single strong qualification round could reshape the bracket.

The history is the draw. World Archery points to Marcus D'Almeida, Lee Woo Seok and Li Jiaman as medallists at Nanjing 2014 who went on to represent their countries for years and win major senior titles. Dakar gives a new group the same platform, and, as the preview notes, could produce a first standout from Africa.

Slovakia's two archers prepare at the Excellence Centre

Slovakia sends Adela Tollarovicova, 15, and Oliver Sotak, 16, to Dakar. Between 5 and 9 October, they trained at the World Archery Excellence Centre in Lausanne in an Olympic Solidarity-supported camp, after Bulgaria's Neda Kenderova and Georgia's Daviti Basiladze did the same a month earlier. Sotak's coach, Juraj Duchon, has set a top-16 finish as the target. Slovakia's previous Youth Olympic archer, Boris Balaz, competed at Nanjing 2014 and went on to Rio 2016.

Kang Yeonseo, 14, and Korea's compound push

Korean compound archer Kang Yeonseo is the youngest Korean selected for the senior squad. At the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya she took two bronze medals, beating teammate Park Jungyoon 145-143 for an individual bronze. She qualified third with 702 points, behind Iran's Bita Asheghzadeh Oskouei (704) and India's Chikitha Taniparthi, then shot two straight 150s in elimination. The second, against Jyothi Surekha Vennam, included six X10s and is described by World Archery as a world-record match score for under-18 compound women. Sergio Pagni, now Korea's head coach, helped her with equipment.

Muntyan wins three golds at the Caribbean Championships

Tatyana Muntyan, a 1988 Olympian from the US Virgin Islands, won three golds in Providence, Guyana. At 58, she topped recurve women's qualification with 556 points, 128 clear of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' Karen Palmer, then beat Guyana's Julie-Ann Williams and Palmer, both 6-0, for the individual title. She added two doubles golds, with 18-year-old Goddess George and with Bruce Arnold. The event drew 202 archers from 13 countries across 82 events.

Parapan American Games quotas: 38 places awarded

Following the Lima 2026 Para Pan American Championships, 38 quota places for the Lima 2027 Parapan American Games were awarded: nine each in recurve and compound men, seven each in recurve and compound women, and three in each of the men's and women's W1 events. Peru, as host, receives six. Brazil and Colombia lead the allocation with nine each, and the USA has eight. Seven men's and seven women's places, plus four bipartite places, remain for a final 2027 qualifier.

What to watch

Today's qualification ranking sets the bracket for Saturday's eliminations, so watch for how far the seedings hold. The medal sessions come in sequence: men on Sunday, women on Monday, and the mixed team on Tuesday 10 November. With a maximum of two archers per nation, depth is limited, so every qualifying arrow counts toward a favourable bracket.

Sources