Manipur teenager Rajkumari Lanchenbi Chanu won India’s first Youth Olympic wushu medal, a bronze in the women’s changquan combined event in Dakar. She scored 18.039 behind Egypt’s Sondos Sonbol and Venezuela’s Valeria Frannerys Dudamel, giving India a third medal at the Games.
Dakar, Senegal: Wushu made its debut as a medal sport at the Youth Olympic Games this year, and India left it with a place on the podium. Rajkumari Lanchenbi Chanu climbed from fourth to third across two routines on Tuesday, finishing on a combined 18.039 in the women’s changquan combined final.
Fourth to third in one routine
The event adds the scores from two routines, gunshu, the staff discipline, and changquan, the bare-handed northern style. Chanu scored 8.723 in gunshu and sat fourth at the halfway point. She then produced 9.316 in changquan, the second-best mark of the final in that routine, and the total lifted her onto the podium. She had reached the final with a preliminary score of 17.982.
Sondos Sonbol of Egypt won gold with 18.660, scoring 9.330 in both routines. Venezuela’s Valeria Frannerys Dudamel Alvarado took silver on 18.199. Chanu finished 0.160 behind the silver medallist and 0.621 behind the champion.
A Manipur wushu story
Chanu, who comes from Manipur, arrived in Dakar with a medal already to her name this year. She won bronze in the girls’ youth changquan at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Tianjin earlier in 2026. The wushu competition at the Dakar Expo Centre ran from 1 to 3 November, and her bronze was the first wushu medal India has won at the Youth Olympics.
India’s Dakar tally reaches three
The bronze is India’s third medal of the Games. Judoka Khushbu Rajakbhai Darjada won silver in the women’s 63kg, and swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu took bronze in the women’s 100m freestyle, a pair of results covered in India’s first Youth Olympic swimming medal and judo silver. India sent a 17-member contingent across 11 sports to the first Youth Olympics held on African soil, which run until 13 November.
Women’s changquan combined, wushu, Dakar 2026 (3 November): 1. Sondos Sonbol (Egypt) 18.660; 2. Valeria Frannerys Dudamel Alvarado (Venezuela) 18.199; 3. Rajkumari Lanchenbi Chanu (India) 18.039 (gunshu 8.723, changquan 9.316).
