Simon Shan of West Vancouver won the men’s epee title at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games yesterday, Wednesday, November 11, beating Serbia’s Vukan Radjenovic 15-9 in the gold medal bout at the Dakar Expo Center. FINAL: Simon Shan 15, Vukan Radjenovic 9. iimiTV’s breaking report on Shan’s gold has the full bout by bout story, from his 5-1 pool round to the three straight elimination wins that carried Canada to its first gold medal of these Games.
The score alone made the final look comfortable. The day after, the winner’s own account filled in the part the score hid: Shan trailed midway, the bout turned on a single action he had been waiting for, and the finalist on the other side of the piste trains in Mississauga, Ontario.
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Simon Shan Fencing Gold, In His Own Words
Speaking after the final, Shan told reporters the title had not landed yet: “I don’t think I’ve fully processed it yet. I’m just very grateful to be able to come here, represent Canada and win.” The 16-year-old then explained the comeback inside the 15-9 score. “I was down 7-5 in the middle of the bout, but once I got one of the actions that I wanted, the rest kind of flowed in, and I felt very confident,” he said. From 7-5 down, Shan outscored Radjenovic 10-2 the rest of the way.
Shan also pointed to the change in his own temperament on the strip. “Before, I was a little bit more crazy, but now, as I’ve grown up, I’ve calmed down more and matured,” he said. He marked the title on his own account overnight, posting his gold medal photos from Dakar, the medal and the Games mascot in hand, with his semi-final and final bout photos behind them:
Simon Shan on Instagram: his Dakar 2026 gold medal carousel, holding the medal and the event mascot, with in-bout photos from his semi-final against Belgium and the final against Serbia.
The Olympics channel’s own cut of the gold medal bout, posted as Shan was confirmed as Youth Olympic champion:
Radjenovic Trains In Mississauga, Targets Los Angeles
The final carried a second Canadian address. Radjenovic lives in Canada and trains at Big Bear Fencing Club in Mississauga, Ontario, so the gold medal bout at the Dakar Expo Center matched a West Vancouver fencer against a Serbia international who does his daily training an hour from Toronto. Radjenovic took pride in the silver: “They say silver is a loss. I think it was an overall win,” he said. “I think I have to stay humble a little bit and I’ve got to train for the L.A. [Los Angeles] 2028 Olympics.” Two fencers based in Canada stood on the top two steps of a Youth Olympic podium, and the runner-up has already named the senior Games as his next target.
Coventry Watches A Canadian Fencing First
The settled record gives Shan’s title its full weight. His gold is Canada’s first in fencing at the Youth Olympics. The country’s only previous Youth Olympic fencing medal was Alexandre Lyssov’s bronze in men’s epee at the inaugural Games in Singapore in 2010, and Canada’s first fencing medal at the senior Olympics arrived only two years ago, Eleanor Harvey’s bronze in women’s foil at Paris 2024. Shan, who fenced as Canada’s only fencing entry in Dakar, now holds a first that neither line had produced.
The final also drew the top of the Olympic movement into the building. The International Fencing Federation’s report of the day records IOC President Kirsty Coventry attending the men’s epee final and the bronze medal bout at the Dakar Expo Centre with FIE President-Interim Abdelmoneim ElHusseiny, meeting young fencers between bouts and stepping onto the piste to try the sport herself. Shan’s home club, Dynamo Fencing in British Columbia, celebrated him as Canada’s first-ever Youth Olympic Games gold medallist in fencing, congratulating his parents, coaches and the whole Canadian fencing community.
What The Gold Sets Up Next
Canada’s count in Dakar stands at one gold, one silver and three bronze medals, as the Games medal record for Canada lists them, with the Games closing on Friday, November 13. The two boxing bronzes won alongside Shan on Wednesday also settled overnight: Mehreen Khakh of Kitchener lost her women’s 51 kilogram semi-final 5-0 to Azerbaijan’s Gular Huseynova and said she will be back stronger, targeting Brisbane 2032, while Lisandro Garcia Rebelo of Mississauga took men’s 55 kilogram bronze after withdrawing from his semi-final through injury.
For Shan, the path from here runs through the senior game he already leads at home. He arrived in Dakar as the silver medallist at the 2026 FIE Cadet World Championships, after bronze at the same event in 2025, and the Canadian Fencing Federation’s senior men’s epee rankings have carried the 2010-born fencer at the top of the national list in 2026. A Youth Olympic title at 16 does not book a senior Olympic place, and Shan said nothing overnight about Los Angeles. But his beaten finalist is already training for LA 2028 out of Mississauga, and the Canadian who beat him, calmer on the strip and a champion at every age level he has entered, is the name at the front of Canada’s epee line as that cycle begins.
