Marina Hadjicosta won Cyprus’s first gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games on Sunday, taking the discus title in Dakar, Senegal, with a throw of 53.20 metres.
Until now, Cyprus’s only medals at the Games, which are in their fourth edition, were two silvers: Alexandros Poursanidis in the hammer in Singapore in 2010 and Paraskevi Andreou in the 100 metres in Nanjing in 2014.
The 17-year-old, who is coached by Konstantinos Stavrou, competed in temperatures that reached 35 degrees Celsius. She opened with 48.17 metres, which put her third, and then had three invalid throws before producing the winning distance with her fifth attempt.
The gold adds to the European U18 title and World U20 bronze she won earlier.
Panteli misses final
Cyprus’s other athletics entry of the day, Andreas Panteli, finished sixth in the second 400 metres semi-final in 51.88 seconds. Panteli, who is coached by Kyriakos Antoniou, placed 12th of the 16 competitors overall and did not reach the final.
Background
Hadjicosta told Phileleftheros in August that she started throwing at about the age of eight, after a coach visited her primary school, and that her big goal is the 2028 Olympic Games.
Her earlier results, as reported in that interview, include eighth place at the 2026 European U23 Throwing Championship, bronze at the 2025 European Youth Olympic Festival and silver at the 2024 World Gymnasiade U18. She holds Cyprus discus records at U16, U18 and U20 level.
In August, she also spoke publicly about the racist comments she had received after her international successes and called on the state to tackle racism, philenews reported.
