Senegal’s Lionesses Segnane & Amina roar in Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games opener

All the 24 girls’ teams were in action at the Saly Beach West as the preliminary round of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games began with 16 matches on the cards.

Backed by a noisy home crowd, Senegal’s Nafi Segnane & Fatou Thiam delivered an early statement of intent with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-09) sweep of Cape Verde’s Gabriela De Fátima Santos Dos Reis & Yenda Sofia Wahnon Neves Mendes in their all-African Pool F opener.

Zoe Paniagua Portorreal & Yerelin Carlenis Reyes Montero of The Dominican Republic edged out Malaysia’s Goh Yu Heng & Jing Yi Ong by 2-1 (21-18, 20-22, 18-16) in an one hour-long thriller to also start their campaign on a winning note.

Top seeds Ming Zhuang & Siyu Qi of China suffered an injury scare after the former was ruled out of their second match of the day against Canada’s Julia McDougall & Natalia Casas with the set scores tied at 1-1.

Earlier, Zhuang Ming & Qi S.Y. had swept aside The Gambia’s Fatima Sanneh & Kaddy Saidy by 2-0 (21-05, 21-05) in their Pool A opener. Meanwhile, Canada’s McDougall & Casas rallied from a set down to beat Paraguay’s Sofia Martinez & Maria Estefania Gomez Martinez by 2-1 (20-22, 21-18, 15-08).

Martinez & Gomez bounced back with a 2-0 (21-09, 21-04) shutout of Sanneh & Saidy to throw Pool A wide open heading into the last round of preliminary matches on Sunday.

Jara Both & Matilda de Groot of The Netherlands barely put a foot wrong in Pool B after registering 2-0 wins over Thailand’s Ainthira Ninsonthi & Phatthanan Wongnongwaeng (22-20,21-12) and Tunisia’s Lamis Lourassi & Israa Bouaziz (21-05, 21-07).

Thailand’s N. Ainthira & W. Phatthanan recovered with a hard-fought 2-1 win (20-22, 22-20, 15-11) over Greece’s Angeliki Charissaki & Grigoria Anna Margaritopoulou who had earlier beaten Lourassi.L & Elaa.F in straight sets (21-07, 21-09) to stay in contention for a place in the Round of 16.

In Pool C, the Swiss third seeds Anja Gähwiler & Noemi Eugster eased past Puerto Rico’s Dana Marina Rodriguez Vives & Arialeey Sofia Serrano Villanueva by 2-0 (21-14, 21-06) while Mexico’s Angela Perez Araujo & Celia Yazbeth López Higuera proved too good for Ecuador’s Isabella Habze Amoretti & Katherine Scarlette Parraga Barela with a comfortable 2-0 (21-10, 21-11) win.

Japan’s Auru Kato & Mei Nakagawa’s encounter with Nigeria’s Pamela Miyoum Bawa & Joy Lawrence stretched to overtime with the Asian pair emerging 2-1 (22-20, 11-21, 15-12) winners. The other Pool D match of the day saw Italy’s fourth seeds Margherita Coretti & Micol Lafuenti overcome Egypt’s Karma Badawy & Marwa Mamdouh Salem Saleh by 2-0 (21-15, 21-14).

Argentina’s Angeles Frascaroli & Garcia Curado Isabella battled to edge out the determined French pair of Mathilde Berthaudeau & Malo Mir by 2-1 (21-14, 20-22, 15-13) in their Pool E opener.Fifth seeds Assucena Xavier Mabjaia & Célia Nelson Machava of Mozambique also had to dig deep to overcome Guam’s Alessandra Leon Guerrero & Erica Cassidy by 2-1 (15-21, 21-19, 15-11).

The pool phase will continue on Sunday with  a total of 20 girls’ matches lined up. The top two teams from each pool, together with the two best third-placed teams, will advance directly to the Round of 16.

The four remaining third-placed teams will compete in an additional qualification round on 2 November, with the two winners securing the final spots in the 16-team single-elimination phase.

The Round of 16 will also take place on 2 November, followed by the quarterfinals and semifinals on 3 November. The competition will conclude on 4 November with the bronze and gold medal matches.

Click here to visit the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games Beach Volleyball event page.