China closes Youth Olympics athletics run with 4-medal haul on final day

DAKAR, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- China concluded its athletics campaign at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games on Tuesday with two golds, one silver and one bronze, bringing its three-day total medals to 3-4-2.

Sheng Xuefeng won the men's triple jump with a leap of 16.18 meters on his fourth attempt, comfortably ahead of Uzbekistan's Shakhzodbek Kholmurodov, who took silver with a personal-best 15.71 meters. Portugal's Joao Matos got bronze with 15.53 meters.

The victory marked a successful international debut for the 17-year-old Sheng, who also won gold at China's National Junior Athletics Games in August.

"Bringing glory to my country and standing atop the podium makes me incredibly happy, but I didn't reach my ideal level today," Sheng said.

"I do have some regrets and might not have fully adapted yet. Back in training, I'll work step-by-step to strengthen my conditioning and refine my technique."

Sheng said the competition had taught him valuable lessons about preparation and adapting to unfamiliar conditions, adding that his next target was to surpass the 17-meter mark.

"Today was a valuable lesson in how to build momentum and structure my warm-up more effectively. I believe this experience will benefit me greatly down the road," he said.

China's second gold of the day came in the women's 5,000-meter race walk, where Wang Yaru clocked a personal-best 22 minutes, 58.33 seconds to finish nearly 57 seconds ahead of Lithuania's Juste Andrijauskaite.

"I'm absolutely delighted, excited and honored. Throughout the competition, I kept telling myself to hang in there because the finish line was just around the corner and the title was within reach," Wang, 17, said.

"I was determined to go all out for the gold, so whenever I felt good physically, I pushed a little harder."

China's other two medals came from Yang Xingyue, who took silver in the women's hammer throw, and Chen Xinxuan, who earned bronze in the women's 200 meters in 24.03 seconds.

Chen said a demanding competition schedule had helped her prepare for the Games, although she was disappointed not to produce a better performance.

"It's a bit disappointing that I couldn't deliver better results, but I plan to work hard during the winter training and come back with stronger performances next season," she said.

China opened its athletics campaign with Zhang Keyi winning the women's 100-meter hurdles in a personal-best 13.17 seconds, while Zhang Hangyu took silver in the men's 100 meters.

Liu Sen and Chen Shijie added silver medals in the men's high jump and 110-meter hurdles, respectively, on the second day, while Liu Han claimed bronze in the men's 400 meters.