France win thrilling rugby sevens final to deny South Africa’s men Youth Olympic gold on their continent
  • Title France win thrilling rugby sevens final to deny South Africa’s men Youth Olympic gold on their continent
  • Publication Date 2nd November 2026
  • Languages FR
  • Location Complexe Iba Mar Diop, Dakar, Senegal
  • Photo Album Link
  • Press Release https://www.olympics.com/en/dakar-2026
  • Description

    The young rugby sevens players of France denied South Africa a gold medal triumph in the men’s final at the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026, the first Olympic sporting event ever hosted on the African continent. Both Under-18 teams had an excellent tournament over their two days at Complexe Iba Mar Diop and produced an exciting final which France ended up winning 26-19. 17-year-old cousins Simon and Gaspard Laharrague scored 21 of France’s points between them with two tries and three conversions for Simon, and a try for Garhard. Jake Dave nearly won the match for South Africa with 14 points of his own through two second half tries and two conversions which closed the gap to 19-21 with a minute to go. France held on to win the men’s Youth Olympic rugby sevens gold for the second time in the three times it has featured, having also triumphed in Nanjing in 2014.
  • Games Edition Dakar 2026 (YOG)
  • Sport
  • Discipline
  • Event
  • Keywords
  • Expiration Date
  • Copyright

    © 2026 - International Olympic Committee - All Rights Reserved. IOC Newsroom video news releases (IOC-VNRs) are the exclusive property of the IOC. They are made available to you for bona fide news reporting purposes only and all rights required for their production have been cleared. IOC-VNRs related to the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) are subject to the terms and conditions of the IOC Newsroom and Olympics.com and shall be used in accordance with the specific News Access Rules applicable for each relevant YOG edition in particular in respect to the amount of content, duration of use, no use of Olympic Properties, no commercial association, on-screen credit (“Courtesy of the International Olympic Committee”), infringements and monitoring, etc.

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