Seven out of the eight mixed double quarterfinalists in the beach sprint competition at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games will also line up in the last 16 knockout rounds of the men’s and women’s solos tomorrow morning. Following the second time trials of each discipline and the first knockouts of the double, the individual athletes of Austria, China, Czechia, France, Germany, Spain and Ukraine will all face the challenge of as many as four races each (one in the solo and three in the double, if they reach the finals) on the third day of competition.
Intriguingly, the quarterfinals of the mixed double also take on a geopolitical theme. There is the Germanic quarterfinal 1 (Germany vs. Austria), the former Soviet quarterfinal 2 (Czechia vs. Ukraine), the world superpower quarterfinal 3 (China vs. USA) and the Western Europe quarterfinal 4 (Spain vs. France).
The last 16 of both the men’s and women’s solos are more diverse and still offer the possibility of some more significant upsets. However as predicted, Europe, which has the most developed beach sprint culture worldwide, is dominating. Just one athlete from Oceania (Australia’s Camilla Griffin) and one from the Americas (USA’s Allison Grove) got through solos time trials, while Africa and Asia each have three in solos knockouts (Egypt’s Yossuf Moursi, South Africa’s Callum Dreyer and China’s Juntao Su in the men’s, and Egypt’s Alia Ali, China’s Lili Liu and Thailand’s Thatchaporn Phengsawang in the women’s). The other 13 men and 11 women are all European.
The last 16 knockout rounds of the solos are scheduled tomorrow at 10:00 UTC for the men and 10:45 for the women. The mixed double final stages (quarterfinals, semifinals and finals) will then run from 12:03, with the bronze medal and gold medal races planned for 12:50 and 12:55.