Mixed fortunes for Nigerian swimmers in Dakar

Nigeria's swimmers experienced mixed results at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, without claiming any medals but making history by Kashope Obatoyinbo reaching a final. The 16-year-old secured a sixth-place finish in the men's 50m freestyle, clocking 23.43 seconds, becoming the country's first athlete to make it to a final. Obatoyinbo's victory came after narrowly edging out Christon Joseph of the Bahamas by 0.01 seconds in a swim-off.

Czech Republic's Zdenek Prochazka claimed the gold with a time of 22.54 seconds, while Jaden Mills of Trinidad and Tobago took the silver in 22.99 seconds and Andrew Marcus Laghoutis of Cyprus claimed the bronze in 23.04 seconds.

After Obatoyinbo's performance, Aidan Dumuje-Abili finished 11th overall in the boys' 50m backstroke, missing the final by a narrow margin of 0.48 seconds. The 15-year-old placed fourth after a reaction time of 0.56 seconds, with Peter Laghoutis taking the last final spot in 27.23 seconds and Dumuje-Abili trailing by 0.22 seconds. Laghoutis' performance secured him the last final position, while Dumuje-Abili was the only Nigerian to place in all of his events.

Kristabel Oldeide secured a second-place finish in her girls' 50m backstroke heat, clocking 32.47 seconds, just 0.46 seconds behind the winner. However, she placed 30th overall after the cut-off for the final was 29.81 seconds. Greece's Nikolaos Papatheodorou and Portugal's Miguel Reis Oliveira shared the boys' final gold after clocking 25.69 seconds, with Belgium's Alexander Van Hoey Billiet finishing third. South Africa's Eric Kotze, the only African in the final, secured the fourth position.