Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics:
Iran into men’s beach volleyball knockouts
The Iranian pair of Amin Vakili and Amirreza Jamshidi secured a place in the knockout stage of the men’s beach volleyball event at the Dakar 2026 Summer Youth Olympic Games with a straight-set victory over the Cayman Islands duo on Saturday.
Having beaten the Congolese pair 2-1 in their Pool B opener the previous day, Vakili and Jamshidi emerged victorious in emphatic fashion, winning 21-6 and 21-5 in their second outing to move level on four points with Austria’s Paul Hohenauer and Martin Poinstingl ahead of their group-deciding clash for top spot on Sunday.
The fourth edition of the multi-sport event, staged in Africa for the first time, kicked off with the opening ceremony at the 55,000-seat Abdoulaye Wade Stadium in Diamniadio, 30km from the Senegalese capital, on Saturday.
Iran is represented by 29 athletes across two team events, including beach volleyball, and 12 individual sports at this year’s edition.
The girls’ futsal team makes up the largest contingent, with 10 athletes. Beach wrestling features four Iranian competitors, while taekwondo has two participants – one girl and one boy. Badminton also has two representatives, one of each gender.
Iran’s remaining athletes will compete in swimming, wushu taolu, triathlon, table tennis, boxing, road cycling, athletics, judo and fencing. The individual quota breakdown is as follows: one boy each in swimming, wushu taolu, triathlon, table tennis, road cycling, athletics and judo, and one girl each in boxing and fencing.
The Dakar Youth Olympics mark Iran’s fourth participation in as many editions since the event was first introduced at Singapore 2010, where the country secured two gold, two silver and one bronze medal.
At Nanjing 2014, Iran collected three gold and three bronze medals before achieving its best performance to date with seven gold, three silver and four bronze medals at Buenos Aires 2018.