At the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar (30 October–13 November), 15-year-old Görkem Öcal of Türkiye reached the quarterfinals, while Spain’s Ladimir Mayorov, two years his junior, finished tenth. Both compass-supported players achieved impressive results in an event open to athletes aged up to 17.

Held just four times in 16 years, the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) carry special prestige. Future world and Olympic champions such as Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha won major titles at this event early in their careers. More than 2,600 athletes competed across 25 sports at the 2026 Games.

The boys’ singles competition featured 32 players, initially divided into groups of four. Görkem advanced to the knockout stage after defeating Algeria’s Aylan Goudjil and Germany’s Jonas Rinderer, edging the latter 12:10 in the deciding game of a crucial encounter. He lost his final group match to China’s Li Hechen.

In the round of 16, Görkem defeated Poland’s Patryk Zyworonek 4:2. Trailing 1:2 in games, he took the fourth 15:13 before winning the final two 11:8 and 11:8. It was a notable victory against the player ranked second in Europe in the U17 category.

In the quarterfinals, Görkem faced Lee Seungsoo of the Republic of Korea, the world’s leading U15 player. He was beaten in five games: 6:11, 12:10, 9:11, 13:15, 7:11.

“My first Youth Olympic Games went well, and it was a great experience. But I really wanted to win a medal. I played well in the group stage. Rinderer played exceptionally well against me.”

Görkem felt that maintaining his concentration throughout the match had been the key to his victory over Zyworonek.

“In the quarterfinal against Lee, if I had managed to win the third game, perhaps I could have won the match. Now I will work towards winning a medal at the senior Olympic Games.”

The Youth Olympic Games were also a memorable experience for Ladimir Mayorov.

“It was an incredible opportunity to experience such a large-scale sporting event and the unique Olympic atmosphere.” – Eduard Mayorov, Ladimir’s father and coach.

In the group stage, Ladimir lost to Lee Seungsoo, who would later defeat Görkem in the quarterfinals. However, victories over Senegal’s Amador Ferrer and Luxembourg’s Aaron Sahr secured his place in the knockout stage. There he faced a difficult draw against compass alumnus Emanuel Otalvaro of Colombia, who went on to reach the final before losing to Japan’s Ryuusei Kawakami.

“Nevertheless, we are very happy and satisfied with Ladimir’s performance. What makes us especially proud is seeing his progress and how he is learning to handle the intensity, pressure and responsibility of competitions at this level.

We hope this experience will be another important step towards his future goals. We sincerely hope that one day he will have the opportunity to compete at the senior Olympic Games and, as Ladimir himself says, fulfil his dream of standing on the Olympic podium.”

Another compass alumnus, Steven Moreno of Puerto Rico, also reached the quarterfinals, where he lost in straight games to eventual champion Kawakami.

October and November also brought plenty of action on the WTT Youth circuit. compass-supported Louis Fegerl produced an extraordinary result in Szombathely, Hungary, reaching the U19 semifinals at just 13 years of age. Among his victories was a 3:2 win over England’s Abraham Sellado. After trailing 1:2, Louis took the final two games 12:10 and 11:9.

In the semifinals, he lost 1:3 to France’s Rija Warin, who had also beaten him 3:1 in the U17 quarterfinals.

At the WTT Youth Contender in Senec, Slovakia, Louis defeated Spain’s Zou Tianxiang 3:2 in the U17 knockout stage before losing 1:3 to the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Moravek in the quarterfinals. He also reached the U15 quarterfinals, where he was beaten 1:3 by Czechia’s Richard Feber.

Germany’s Jeffrey Wei reached the U17 knockout stage in Lignano, losing in straight games to Spain’s Marcos Gomez. In the U15 event, he defeated Croatia’s Mateo Terihaj in the opening knockout round before falling 1:3 to Stephen Lu of the United States.

• 2010 (Singapore): Koki Niwa (Japan) and Gu Yuting (China)
• 2014 (Nanjing): Fan Zhendong and Liu Gaoyang (China)
• 2018 (Buenos Aires): Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha (China)
• 2026 (Dakar): Ryuusei Kawakami (Japan) and Chen Min-hsin (Chinese Taipei)