Youth Olympic Games: Dhinidhi Desinghu, Tirthank Pegu clinch swimming bronze medals

Dhinidhi Desinghu continued her good form, adding another bronze medal to her tally at the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, on Friday.

The Indian swimmer clocked 2:02.28s in the women’s 200m freestyle final to finish third. She had a slow start to the final but fought back in the last 100m to finish on the podium.

She will return from Dakar with twin bronze, having won the same colour in the 100m freestyle earlier this week, becoming the first Indian swimmer to win multiple medals at these Games.

Dhinidhi topped the heats and ranked as the overall best swimmer earlier in the day, but was pushed to third in the final by China’s Chang Mohan and Croatia’s Ana Bobanovic.

First-ever medal in men's swimming

Meanwhile, Tirthank Pegu claimed bronze in the men’s 200m butterfly with a time of 2:01.25, becoming the first Indian male swimmer to medal at these Games.

He held second place after 150 metres before a late surge by the Vietnamese swimmer Van Hoang Quy Duong pushed him to third, and he settled for a bronze.

Pegu had earlier placed fourth in the men’s 100m butterfly but has now concluded his tournament with a medal to bring an end to India's best-ever swimming campaign.

This takes India’s medal tally at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games to six: two bronzes from Dhinidhi, silver medals from Tanvi Patri (badminton) and Khushbu Darjada (judo), and a bronze in wushu for Rajkumari.