Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics:
Soltanian breaks gold drought as Iran finishes with eight medals
Benyamin Soltanian ended Iran’s gold drought at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics by claiming the top prize in the men’s +73kg taekwondo event on Thursday.
Having beaten opponents from Bulgaria and South Korea without dropping a single round, the young Iranian capped his dominant campaign with a 2-0 (15-8, 4-4) victory over Spain’s Iván Lysenko in the final, taking the country’s medal haul to eight, including four silvers and three bronzes.
His triumph also completed Iran’s two-medal haul in taekwondo after Asal Goltappeh settled for silver in the women’s 63kg category following a defeat to Germany’s Luna Fellinger in the final on Wednesday at the Complexe Iba Mar Diop.
Elsewhere on the final day of Iranian action at the multi-sport event, the country claimed an impressive bronze medal in women’s futsal.
Tannaz Baqeri scored a hat-trick as the Iranian girls, having suffered a 3-2 extra-time defeat to Venezuela in the semifinals, bounced back from a 2-1 halftime deficit to beat Italy 5-2 in the third-place match. It was Iran’s second victory over the European side, following a 3-1 win on the final day of the group stage.
The first of Iran’s four silver medals came in swimming, where Parsa Shahshahani clocked 2:02.74 to finish runner-up to New Zealand’s Ariel Muchirahondo in the men’s 200m backstroke final.
Iranian judoka Sobhan Hakimi also claimed silver in the men’s -81kg category.
A gold medalist at July’s Asian Cadet Judo Championships, Hakimi opened his campaign with a victory over Sierra Leone’s Shaku Kargbo, followed by a semifinal win against Egypt’s Aly Ealramly, before being denied gold by Slovenia’s Maks Cebulj in the final.
In beach wrestling, meanwhile, Iran’s Amirali Domirkolaei suffered a 4-0 defeat to Venezuela’s Wilfredo Grabiel Rodriguez Gonzalez in the men’s 60kg final.
Iran also collected a beach wrestling bronze through Reza Jalalian in the men’s 80kg class, while Arash Pahali won bronze in men’s wushu, finishing third in the changquan combined event in taolu.
The medal haul in the Senegalese capital marked Iran’s lowest tally in the four editions of the Youth Olympics since the event was first introduced at Singapore 2010. The country was represented by 29 athletes across two team events and 12 individual sports.
At Singapore 2010, Iran secured two gold, two silver and one bronze medal. The country collected three gold and three bronze medals at Nanjing 2014 before achieving its best performance to date with seven gold, three silver and four bronze medals at Buenos Aires 2018.