Singapore archer Tabitha Yeo finished fourth in the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) girls’ individual event on Nov 9, after losing 6-4 to Sandra Perez Cumbreras of Spain in the bronze-medal play-off.

Cumbreras, 16, clinched the deciding set 29-28 to place third, after both archers had won a set each and drawn two sets at the Abdoulaye Wade Stadium in Dakar, Senegal.

In each set, archers shoot three arrows each to see who gets the higher score. A perfect 10 is awarded for arrows landing in the innermost ring. Each set won earns the archer two points. If the scores are level, they get one point each.

Tabitha, who was in tears after the match, said: “It wasn’t what I was hoping for. Definitely, I could have done better, but I think I gave it my all.

“Really tired, but I’m still happy. I left everything I had on the shooting line. I don’t have any regrets from these Youth Olympics.”

Asked what she was most proud of about her campaign, the 17-year-old, who placed seventh after the ranking round, said: “I never gave up.

“I came into the semi-finals as the lowest-ranked. I probably wasn’t expected to make it that far, but I did it... I fought to the last arrow.”

On what lessons she gleaned, the psychology student at Temasek Polytechnic said: “I learnt that I’m a lot stronger than I think and I’m going to bring that with me to every competition.”

Tabitha had lost 6-5 to Whang Ye-eun of the United States in their semi-final, which was decided by a one-arrow shoot-off, after both were deadlocked at 5-5 after five sets. Turkey’s Dunya Yenihayat won the gold by beating Whang 6-5 in the final.

Earlier, Tabitha defeated Egyptian Nouray Elsayed 6-0 in the quarter-finals, after overcoming New Zealand’s Ella Yang and Mexico’s Maya Casa Lara 6-0 and 6-5 respectively in the first two rounds.

About a year ago, she had won gold in the mixed recurve team event with Li Yue Long at the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand.

Next up for her is the Hangzhou Asia Cup in China from Nov 16 to 21.

Earlier at the Dakar YOG, Singapore won a gold and a silver.

Wushu exponent Ng Zhe Nin, 16, struck gold in the women’s taijiquan combined event on Nov 3. Two days later, table tennis player Loy Ming Ying, 16, earned a silver in the women’s singles event.

Singapore is represented by 14 athletes at these Games, competing in archery, athletics, badminton, 3x3 basketball, fencing, artistic gymnastics, sailing, table tennis and wushu.