Kenya women’s rugby team clinches historic Youth Olympic gold

Kenya has pulled off a major upset at the Dakar Youth Olympic Games, with the women’s rugby team securing gold after beating Australia 17-12 in sudden death. The match ended 12-12 in regulation time. Having beaten Kenya 17-5 earlier in the day in the final Group B match, Australia got off to a flying start, scoring the first try within 30 seconds. But Kenya hit back towards the end of the first half to level the score at 5-5 at the break. In the second half, Australia used their pace to cut through the Kenyan defence, scoring a converted try to take a 12-5 lead. With 90 seconds to play, Kenya won a scrum, while Australia were reduced to six players after one was sent to the sin bin. Kenya scored in the dying seconds and converted to force a 12-12 tie. The match went into sudden death, where the winner would be decided by a golden score. Kenya kept their cool and used their powerful running game to push back Australia before scoring the decisive try for a 17-12 victory. Africa had another team on the podium, with Madagascar beating Czechia to claim bronze.