Kenya's U18 women beat Australia 17-12 in golden point to win Youth Olympics rugby sevens gold in Dakar

Kenya's under-18 women's rugby sevens team, the Rising Lionesses, beat Australia 17-12 in extra time (golden point) in the final of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games on 3 November to win gold, the rugby news site RugbyPass and the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) reported. Mitchelle Chemtai scored the winning try in golden point, World Rugby, the sport's world governing body, reported. Zain Hido and Josephine Kerubo scored in regulation time, and Diana Wanjiku's conversion made it 12-12 and sent the match into extra time.

Kenya reached the final by beating Madagascar 15-5 in the semi-finals. Australia beat Czechia 19-10 in the other semi-final. Australia had beaten Kenya 17-5 in the last Pool A match, and Kenya went through as the pool's second-placed team. Madagascar beat Czechia 26-10 in the bronze medal match.

On 2 November, in Pool A, Kenya beat China 12-5 and hosts Senegal 19-0. Kenya opened the tournament against China. Evalyne Afande scored the only try of the first half, and Michael Mmboga went over after a solo run at the start of the second seven-minute half. Peng Songmei's try for China gave them a losing bonus point.

Against Senegal, Josephine Kerubo, Shaheen Sada and Afande scored the tries.

"Today's two matches were tough but we managed to win them all," Kerubo said, as quoted by Citizen Digital. "We started the first match with motivation, but we pushed through the second through encouragement by our coach."

Australia, the top seeds, also won both games. They beat Senegal 32-0, with two tries from Mia Shelley, and beat China 21-15 despite a red card for Keira Callaghan. China scored three tries in the second half before Layne Prince sealed the win for Australia.

China's under-18 women qualified for Dakar by winning the Asian under-18 sevens championship in 2025, China Sport Daily reported in September. New Zealand, the 2018 gold medallists, did not qualify.

In Pool B on 2 November, Madagascar beat the United States 12-10 and Czechia beat them 24-21.

The women's tournament had eight teams in two pools. The pool rounds started on 2 November and the medal rounds were played on 3 November. In the men's tournament, France beat South Africa 26-19 in the final on 2 November and Argentina beat Canada for bronze.