Jara Both and Matilda de Groot won girls' beach volleyball gold at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games. Volleyball World reports that the Dutch pair defeated Italy's Margherita Coretti and Micol Lafuenti 2-1 at Saly Beach West, with set scores of 21-16, 19-21 and 15-11.
The second seeds finished unbeaten and dropped only one set in the entire tournament. Their title follows bronze at July's U18 world championships in The Hague.
Response after the second set
De Groot credited Italy's resistance and said Dutch serving mistakes had made the match harder. Both also pointed to their own errors in the second set but said they remained confident that reducing mistakes would give them a route to victory.
They recovered in the deciding tie-break, winning 15-11 to turn that belief into the title. The players described the move from world bronze to Dakar gold as progress within the same season.
Switzerland take bronze
Anja Gähwiler and Noemi Eugster beat China's Ming Zhuang and Siyu Qi 2-0, taking the bronze match 21-13, 21-14. Switzerland finished with five wins and two defeats.
China had won their previous meeting 2-1 at the July world championships. Gähwiler said Switzerland prepared a plan for the rematch and focused on mental strength and side-out execution.
Eugster credited stability across different aspects of their play and hoped to explore the city and watch other sports after competing. For the Dutch champions, Dakar concludes an unbeaten campaign and a step up from their earlier world medal.