The 17-year-old Ukrainian walked into her quarter-final at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games on 9 November needing a win to reach the semi-final, and she did it the hard way. Petruk dropped the opening round to Besma Bahri but recovered to take the next two and win by 3:2 on a split decision, according to UNITED24 Media.

That put her through to the semi-final, which in Olympic boxing is enough on its own. The two beaten semi-finalists are awarded bronze medals, and the pair who win fight on for gold and silver. For Ukraine the colour of the medal is the second story. The country has never before had a girls’ boxer on the Youth Olympic podium.

The Boxing Federation of Ukraine confirmed the milestone, calling the win “Ukraine’s first-ever medal in girls’ boxing in the history of the Youth Olympic Games.”

From European U17 silver to a Dakar podium

Petruk is not a new name on the junior circuit. She took silver at the 2025 European U17 championships and followed it with another silver at a qualifying event in Thailand earlier this year, reports Ukrainian outlet Inkorr. She is one half of a two-boxer Ukrainian delegation in Dakar, alongside Polina Kovera.

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Kazakhstan’s Tursingali stands between her and a final

Petruk’s semi-final is on Wednesday 11 November against Aknur Tursingali of Kazakhstan. A win sends her into the gold-medal bout on Thursday 12 November; a loss leaves her with bronze.

Dakar 2026 is the first Olympic sporting event held on African soil. World Boxing lists 114 boxers from 73 nations in a draw spread across five men’s and five women’s weight classes, with the full boxing programme running at the Dakar Expo Centre in Diamniadio from 7 to 12 November.

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