China collected three gold medals and one bronze across badminton, skateboarding and swimming at the Dakar Youth Olympic Games, 正观新闻 reported on Friday. The day's headline result came in the women's badminton singles final, where Zhang Yixin came from a game down to beat India's Patri 2–1. Zhu Yuanling added gold in the women's street skateboard event, and Hong Tianyue took bronze in the men's badminton singles.
Why it matters
The results mark a strong single-day return for China at the Games and put two young athletes — Zhang in badminton and Zhu in skateboarding — in the frame for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Zhu has already named that target publicly. The day also produced a first for Chinese Taipei table tennis and a second gold for a Romanian backstroke specialist, showing how widely the medals were spread.
A final decided by two points
Zhang's win was the most dramatic of the day. According to 正观新闻, she trailed after the opening game, which she said was heavily affected by wind on court. Her opponent attacked aggressively, and Zhang said she tried to open up the court to create chances, but her high shots were disturbed by the breeze and her hitting was less steady than usual.
The decider was stranger still. Zhang led 19–10 and appeared to be cruising, only for her opponent to reel off points, move ahead and hold match point. Zhang held firm and closed it out 26–24.
She credited experience for getting through it. Zhang said she had already lost matches this year after building large leads, and that the memory helped her this time. She also pointed to her coach's encouragement, saying she reset mentally, let go of the pressure and concentrated on each point and each shot rather than the scoreline.
In the men's final, the UAE's Malan beat France's Sou in the title match. Hong Tianyue took the bronze by defeating South Korea's Park Jeong-bin. Hong told 正观新闻 he felt some disappointment but mostly excitement, describing how he had been holding in frustration after a loss the previous day and was determined to perform.
Skateboard gold after two failed runs
Zhu's victory in the women's street final was also far from straightforward. She said afterwards that the contest was nerve-racking: her first two attempts in the run section did not land, and she only produced the score she wanted on the third try under pressure.
Zhu is looking beyond Dakar. She said she wants to bring harder tricks and cleaner lines to the Los Angeles 2028 Games, with a podium finish and then gold as her aims.
In the men's street event, an American skater took the title, according to Phoenix News.
Records fall in the pool and at the table
Romania's Silisteanu won the women's 50m backstroke, adding to her earlier victory in the 100m backstroke and giving her a second gold of the Games. The men's 50m backstroke produced a shared title: Greece's Papaseo Zorou and Portugal's Reis Oliveira both touched in 25.69 seconds and were declared joint champions.
Japan's Ishikawa Mana won the women's 50m breaststroke, making her a four-time champion at this edition of the Games.
In table tennis, Chinese Taipei's Chen Min-hsin beat Singapore's Li Ming-ying 4–2 to win the women's singles — the first Youth Olympic table tennis gold in Chinese Taipei's history. Japan's Kawakami Ryusei matched that scoreline against Colombia's Otalvaro to take the men's singles and complete a double at the Games.
What to watch
Attention now turns to the remaining events on the Dakar programme, where several of Friday's medallists will be watching results elsewhere to see how the Games' standout performers are remembered — and whether Zhu's stated ambition of a Los Angeles podium starts to look realistic.
