2026 Pétanque World Youth Championship Results: Santa Susanna, Spain

The FIPJP World Youth Championship - known in French as the Mondial Jeunes - wrapped up in Santa Susanna, near Barcelona, Spain, on 2 August 2026, with three different countries sharing the gold medals across the event's three mixed disciplines: Thailand in triples, Madagascar in doubles, and France in precision shooting.

Event at a Glance

• Event: FIPJP World Youth Championship (Junior World Championship) - Mixed Triples, Mixed Doubles, and Precision Shooting
• Dates: 30 July - 2 August 2026
• Venue: Santa Susanna, Spain - held outdoors at a hotel-complex venue
• Organizer: Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FIPJP)
• Participating nations: 23 countries

Format: Mixed Teams, Under-18

The Youth Championship is contested by players under 18, and FIPJP keeps every discipline mixed: Triples, Doubles, and Precision Shooting squads must each include at least one young woman. That's a deliberate structural difference from the senior Men's and Women's World Championships (see our full World Championship history), which run as separate men's and women's events.

The Youth event is also where several of the sport's biggest current names got their start - Henri Lacroix and Dylan Rocher both won Junior titles before dominating the senior circuit.

Mixed Triples: Thailand Wins Gold, France Falls Short in the Final

Thailand beat France 13-0 in the mixed triples final to take gold. France's squad - Kimberley Bousch, Roxane Croquefer, Sacha Jacquet, and Dawson Herlemann - reached the final by beating Madagascar's Harison Clarito Andriambelonony, Nomena Ramamonjisoa, and Avotiana Eliot Raberanto 13-11 in an 18-end semi-final that ran over two hours, denying Madagascar the chance to defend its 2025 mixed triples silver. Madagascar took the bronze medal.

Mixed Doubles: Madagascar Defends Its Title

Madagascar retained its mixed doubles title, with Harison Clarito Andriambelonony and Nomena Ramamonjisoa beating Spain's Hugo and Ainhoa (substituted mid-match by Marina) 13-6 in the final. The Malagasy pair took control early, leading 7-0 after three ends and 10-4 after nine, closing out the match in one hour and 25 minutes. On the way to the final, they eliminated Monaco in the round of 16 and Denmark 13-7 in the quarter-final.

Precision Shooting: France's Bousch and Herlemann Take Gold, Thailand Denies Madagascar Again

Kimberley Bousch and Dawson Herlemann won the mixed precision shooting title for France. Madagascar's Harison Clarito Andriambelonony and Nomena Ramamonjisoa - the same pair that won mixed doubles gold - reached the precision shooting semi-final by beating Turkey's Yagmur Tosun and Omer Ceylan 20-15 in the quarter-final, but lost 17-29 to Thailand's Suekam Panadda and Aramrod Saharat in the semi-final: the match was close after the first workshop (8-9) before Thailand pulled away (3-6, 0-3, 1-6, with a fifth workshop not needed). Madagascar took bronze, its third medal of the championship alongside doubles gold and triples bronze. Some French-language coverage of France's title run instead named Madagascar as the opponent in a 28-10 France victory; based on the more detailed, independently corroborated Malagasy account of the actual semi-final bracket, we believe that score describes a different match in the competition rather than the final itself, though we could not confirm which one.

Santa Susanna's History with the World Championships

This isn't the venue's first time hosting FIPJP's flagship event. Santa Susanna previously staged the full 2021 World Championships from 12-21 November 2021 - Men's Triples and Precision Shooting, Women's Triples and Precision Shooting, and Junior Triples and Precision Shooting all in one location, drawing roughly 400 players from 70 countries. France won that year's Junior Triples gold, with Madagascar taking silver - a rivalry that continued through the 2025 and now 2026 editions, with France and Madagascar meeting again in this year's triples semi-final.

What We Could Not Verify

Sources agree closely on the triples and doubles results, both corroborated with specific scores, end counts, and player names across independent French and Malagasy outlets. The precision shooting semi-final between Madagascar and Thailand is similarly well corroborated (specific workshop-by-workshop scoring, consistent across five independent Malagasy outlets). What we could not pin down is the exact final score between France and Thailand, since available coverage of France's final match describes the opponent as Madagascar rather than Thailand - we'll update this section if a clearer primary source, such as an official FIPJP result sheet, becomes available.

Catch up on the format of pétanque's tournaments, the sport's official rules, or read about the senior circuit's own upcoming showpiece in our 2026 World Championship preview.