Nwankwo and Bright sweep Youth Olympics 100m golds as Nigeria makes sprint history in Dakar

Photo: Rosemary Chigozie Nwankwo and Gift Bright racing at Dakar 2026 · Source: Premium Times (8 Nov 2026); photos by MakingOfChamps

Rosemary Chigozie Nwankwo, 17, and Gift Bright, 15, won the girls’ and boys’ 100m finals in Dakar, making Nigeria the first country to sweep both sprint crowns at one Youth Olympics.

Nigeria won both 100 metres titles at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games on Sunday, becoming the first country to win both sprint crowns at the same edition.

Rosemary Chigozie Nwankwo, 17 and Team Nigeria captain, won the girls’ final in a wind-assisted 11.16 seconds (wind +2.4 m/s, above the +2.0 limit for record purposes), ahead of the UAE’s Arwa Ali (11.41) and Qatar’s Dana Salem (11.48). The time is wind-assisted and not record-eligible. She is the third Nigerian girl to win the event after Josephine Omaka (Singapore 2010) and Rosemary Chukwuma (Buenos Aires 2018).

Gift Bright, 15, won the boys’ final in a personal best of 10.28 seconds (legal wind +1.7 m/s), ahead of China’s Zhang Hangyu (10.57) and Poland’s Szymon Dolega (10.61) — the first Nigerian ever to win the boys’ 100m at the Youth Olympics.

The two golds are Nigeria’s first medals of the Games (Dakar, 31 Oct–13 Nov), lifting the country to joint 14th on the medal table at filing time. The pair are also the first beneficiaries of the National Sports Commission’s cash reward for medallists — $3,000 for gold, per NSC Director-General Bukola Olopade’s promise.

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