European youth champion Artur Gaspar (POR) won the first triathlon title of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, with Emile Vanolst (LUX) taking silver and two bronze medals awarded after Daiki Nishizaki (JPN) and Ramazan Ainegov (KAZ) crossed the line together.
Artur Gaspar added Youth Olympic gold to his European youth title on Thursday morning in Saly, pulling away from Luxembourg's Emile Vanolst over the final two run laps to win the Youth Men's race of the Dakar Youth Olympic Games. Behind them, Japan's Daiki Nishizaki and Kazakhstan's Ramazan Ainegov sprinted shoulder to shoulder down the blue carpet and stopped the clock together in 53:27. The photo finish could not separate them, and both left Saly Beach with a bronze medal.
The podium was a rematch of Melilla, where Gaspar beat Vanolst by two seconds for the European youth title last month. This time the 16-year-old's margin was 10 seconds, and it brought Portugal its first Youth Olympic men's triathlon title, eight years after Alexandre Montez took silver in Buenos Aires.
Big waves and a group of ten
Thirty-two athletes from 32 nations and all five continents lined up on the beach for the first Olympic triathlon ever held in Africa. The water was 28.1°C, too warm for wetsuits, and big waves rolling into Saly put a premium on dolphin diving, a skill some athletes handled far better than others.
The single 750m lap soon stretched the field. North Macedonia's Mario Brezovski was first out of the water, and nine more followed within five seconds: Aliasghar Keshavarzian (IRI), Ludovico Trincheri (ITA), Gaspar, Gustav Langkær (DEN), Nishizaki, Aaron Jesús Hernández Morales (VEN), Vanolst, Alessandro Diego Cortez Delgado (MEX) and Ondrej Plic (CZE). Africa youth champion Youssef Slama (TUN) was 12th out, and Ainegov 15th, only 23 seconds behind Brezovski.
The chase closes on the bike
The ten leaders came through the short run to transition together and set off on three laps of the flat, fast 6.4km circuit. Behind them a larger chase group formed with plenty of horsepower: Ainegov, Slama, Feher Moussa (KSA), Markus Berget Galleberg (NOR), Raphael Künz (AUT), Wiktor Korol (POL), Abilaykhan Orinbasarov (UZB), Ziad Bouchikha (MAR), Raimundo Vicente San Martín Naranjo (CHI), Maks Mori (SLO), Li-Je Huang (TPE), Everts Pikšēns (LAT) and Elias Medina Paolucci (URU).
The gap held at around 30 seconds through the middle of the bike, but the chasers were riding harder. Künz set the fastest bike split of the day (27:47), with Mori, Orinbasarov and Moussa close behind, and on the final lap the chase pack cut the deficit to 17 seconds. Then, on the last turn into transition, Slama crashed. The two groups merged and 23 athletes, Slama among them, came into T2 within 16 seconds of each other, turning the race into a 5km shoot-out.
Gaspar pulls clear, Nishizaki hunts down Ainegov
San Martín and Hernández Morales led the pack out of T2, and Trincheri headed the field at the first time check, but by the end of the first of three run laps Gaspar had taken over with Vanolst on his shoulder. The Portuguese then went to work. He was three seconds clear at 2.5km, six at 3.3km and 12 at 4.1km, and crossed the line 10 seconds ahead with the fastest run of the day, 15:42. Vanolst ran 15:47, the second fastest, and was never threatened from behind.
The battle for bronze started on the first lap and never let up. Ainegov, who had made up a 23-second swim deficit with the chase group, moved clear on the second lap and led Nishizaki by seven seconds half way through the run. Nishizaki chased hard and drew level at 4.1km, with Trincheri alongside them. The Italian could not hold on, and the final 900m turned into a straight fight between Japan and Kazakhstan. Both covered it in 3:02, the fastest closing split of the race, and they hit the blue carpet side by side in a sprint so close that the photo finish could not tell them apart. The pair had met earlier this year at the Asia Junior Championships in Hong Kong, where Nishizaki took silver five seconds ahead of Ainegov's bronze. In Saly there was nothing between them at all.
Trincheri held on for fifth, 17 seconds off the medals.
A diverse field, all the way down
The top ten featured ten nations across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Cortez Delgado, Mexico's only triathlete in Dakar, was sixth, ahead of Plic (CZE) and Moussa (KSA), coming from Saudi Triathlon's Elite Pathway programme. Galleberg (NOR) was ninth and Künz (AUT) converted his fastest bike split into tenth.
Korol (POL), Langkær (DEN) and Orinbasarov (UZB) followed, with Bouchikha (MAR) the best-placed African in 14th. South American Junior Games champion San Martín and Hernández Morales, fourth behind him in Panama in April, finished 16th and 15th respectively, with Medina Paolucci (URU) 17th. Keshavarzian (IRI) was 18th and Mori (SLO) 19th. Slama, who knows this coastline better than anyone after winning the Saly Development Regional Cup last November, picked himself up after his crash to finish 20th.
Huang (TPE) was 21st and Gianluca Bortoli (BER), the CARIFTA silver medallist, recovered from losing touch with the chase group on the second bike lap to run 17:57 and finish 22nd. Pikšēns (LAT) and first-out-of-the-water Brezovski (MKD) completed the top 24. Oceania's Matthew More (NZL) was 25th, ahead of Arvin Abdel Massih (MOZ) and Eduardo Andres Carretero (PUR). Robert Robin, Kenya's first Youth Olympic triathlete, finished 28th despite two penalties, and Crisroch Euta Levale (SAM) completed the 29 finishers. Josiah Croker (FIJ) and Johannes Jacob Langford (NAM) did not finish, and home athlete Ousmane Thiaw (SEN) was disqualified for not serving a penalty.
What the medallists said
Artur Gaspar (POR), gold: "I feel very good, very happy. I've done what I was expecting. It was the best way to finish my season. The swim was very controlled, then on the bike there were a lot of attacks and I tried to be safe. On the run I felt I had the qualities to lead the race, so I went and kept some distance." The day had not started perfectly: "I woke up at 5am. I was struggling with pain because of my breakfast… the food here is different to in Portugal." Gold will not change his priorities: "I would like to compete at a high standard, but I am also a dedicated student. In one year I will go to college and study economics. I would like to keep both things going."
Emile Vanolst (LUX), silver: "I'm a bit disappointed that I'm not first, but I'm second. That's also very good." Vanolst had prepared for the Senegalese heat with sauna sessions, five to 10 times in the two weeks before travelling, and then "didn't feel any heat during the race." Running is his strongest discipline, "so I just waited for the run. When Artur went to the front, it got very hard. Then I just had to push to the end." He also praised the field: "Everyone followed the rules, nobody pushed or anything. It was very respectful." A runner since the age of eight, he only took up swimming three or four years ago. "Luxembourg is a very little country, but the infrastructure for sport is very good. I'm very, very proud for my country and for myself."
Daiki Nishizaki (JPN), bronze: "At first, I wasn't sure whether I had won a medal or not, but once the medal was confirmed and I realised I had tied for third place with the athlete from Kazakhstan, I felt really happy. I want to thank my parents who pushed me and supported me so much during this adventure." Racing for Japan on the international stage for the first time, he found the course tough: "The tide was high and the waves were quite big", but he kept the pressure in perspective. "I felt a lot of pressure coming in. But I managed to have fun and give it my all. It's extremely important to have fun in life, whatever you do, but especially in this environment where there is a lot of pressure." On his first visit to Senegal: "It's so cool to be able to come all the way here, sharing this experience with other athletes, from other sports."
Ramazan Ainegov (KAZ), bronze: "I put all my power and energy on that last sprint to the finish line. I wanted to show my character and get the third place." He did it despite a stomach ache on the run: "It was a tough swim, some powerful cycling and to run under this heat is so hard." Sharing the podium was more than enough: "If I had arrived fourth I would have been disappointed, but my performance was good and that was enough for me." Like Vanolst, he came to triathlon from another sport: "First, I started swimming. Then my parents decided to make me try triathlon."
