Nigeria’s Pamela Miyoum Bawa and Joy Lawrence have qualified for the women’s beach volleyball round of 16 at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, where they will face Thailand, Bold sports reports.
The Nigerian pair secured second place in Pool D despite losing their final group match 2–0 to Italy’s Margherita Coretti and Micol Lafuenti on Sunday.
Italy won 21–15, 21–16 at Saly Beach West, completing an unbeaten group campaign. Nigeria nevertheless advanced directly to the knockout stage, with Volleyball World’s completed preliminary-round report confirming their qualification and next opponents.
Bawa and Lawrence will meet Thailand’s Ainthira Ninsonthi and Phatthanan Wongnongwaeng for a place in the quarter-finals.
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The qualification gives Nigeria something to build on after a group campaign that produced one victory and two defeats.
Bawa and Lawrence opened against Japan’s Auru Kato and Mei Nakagawa on Saturday, losing a closely contested three-set encounter.
After surrendering the opening set 22–20, the Nigerians responded strongly to take the second 21–11. Japan then won the deciding set 15–12 to claim the match.
Nigeria recovered on Sunday with a straight-set victory over Egypt’s Karma Badawy and Marwa Mamdouh Salem Saleh. Bawa and Lawrence edged the first set 21–19 before taking the second 21–11.
That win proved crucial to their progress, even though they could not follow it with another victory against the unbeaten Italians.
Coretti and Lafuenti took both sets in the final group encounter, adding Nigeria to their earlier victories over Egypt and Japan.
Volleyball World confirmed Nigeria’s second-place finish in its tournament roundup, which also recorded Egypt’s subsequent straight-set victory over Japan.
The top two pairs in each pool qualified directly for the round of 16, alongside the two best third-placed teams. Nigeria therefore avoided the additional qualification round required for the remaining third-placed sides.
Their attention now turns to Thailand and the start of the single-elimination phase, with a quarter-final place the next target.
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