Twenty six seconds separated Rohnan Nicholson from the winning time at the Youth Olympic Games on Sunday. The 17 year old from Zimbabwe finished ninth in the men's road race in Dakar, and he was the first African rider across the line.[1]
Belgium's Daan Wilmsen won the 76.5 kilometre race on the Corniche Ouest in 1:47:04. Russia's Stepan Bortnik and Australia's Caleb McKenzie took silver and bronze on the same time, with Slovakia's Timotej Michalík fourth, also on the same time. Nicholson came home in 1:47:30, level on time with the riders in sixth, seventh and eighth.[2]
How the race unfolded
Nicholson stayed in the main bunch for much of the race, then joined a chasing group around the sixth lap. He could not stay with it when the group made its move after McKenzie.[1]
The next African finisher was Angola's Mariano Lucamba in 16th, 59 seconds back, in a large group that also held riders from Morocco, Algeria, Ethiopia, Namibia, Tunisia, South Africa and Rwanda. Thirty three riders finished from a start list of 39.[2]
Nicholson did not oversell it.
"Ninth is okay. It was quite hot out there, although I feel I could have pushed more, but I will take the result," he said after the race.[1]
He had hoped for more. Before leaving for Senegal, he said his aim was a podium place.[3]
From Kisumu to Dakar
The result came 16 days after a continental title. On 23 October in Kisumu, Kenya, Nicholson won the junior road race at the African Road Cycling Championships, taking a five-man sprint after 119.8 kilometres, with Mauritius' Juliano Ndriamanampy second and Algeria's Abdelkader Bechelaghem third.[4] He said afterwards that the standard on the continent was climbing.
"We are growing as a continent, and we seem to be getting better riders each year," he said.[4]
His preparation has taken him well beyond Zimbabwe. He spent most of the build-up racing and training with the Watersley R&D under-19 team, based in Sittard in the Netherlands.[3] At home he is a St John's College student, coached by Elsie Mahumbe.[5]
What it means
Nicholson is Zimbabwe's only cyclist at these Games, and one of 12 athletes in the country's team.[3] Finishing in the same group as riders from Latvia, Colombia and Austria, and ahead of a field that included France and Italy, gives Zimbabwean cycling a useful marker of where its best junior stands against the wider world, not just the continent.[2]
He is not done in Dakar. Nicholson races again on Tuesday in the individual time trial.[1]
Sources
Nicholson takes African honours in Dakar Youth Olympic cycling race, ZBC News ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Road cycling at the 2026 Summer Youth Olympics, Men's individual road race, Wikipedia ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Wheels of Fire: Zimbabwe's Nicholson Outlasts Continental Onslaught to Seize Junior Road Race Glory, PuraVida Sports ↩︎ ↩︎
Meet Rohnan Nicholson, Team Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Olympic Committee ↩︎
Researched and drafted with the help of AI tools, then fact-checked and edited by our team. How we work.
