Nomena Ramamonjisoa - Madagascar's Junior World Petanque Champion | Player Profile

Nomena Ramamonjisoa - Quick Facts

Retaining a World Title at 16

Nomena Ramamonjisoa is the Malagasy petanque player who helped Madagascar retain its U18 Mixed Doubles world title at the 2026 FIPJP World Youth Championship in Santa Susanna, Spain. Partnering Harison Clarito Andriambelonony, she beat Spain's Hugo and Ainhoa (substituted mid-match by Marina) 13-6 in the final on 2 August 2026, closing out the match in one hour and 25 minutes after leading 7-0 after three ends and 10-4 after nine. The win retained the Mixed Doubles title Madagascar had first won at the 2025 championship in Isla Cristina, Spain.

Just 16 years old at the time (her birthday falls on 10 August, so she turned 16 just over a week after the championship, which ran 30 July - 2 August), Ramamonjisoa had only been playing petanque for around two years. She was born and is based in Antsirabe, playing for the MKT Vakinankaratra club, and was selected for Madagascar's national U18 squad through evaluations held 10-12 June 2026 in her home city.

2026 World Youth Championship: Three Events, Three Medals

Ramamonjisoa competed across all three disciplines at Santa Susanna, medaling in each. Alongside her Mixed Doubles gold, she and Andriambelonony reached the Mixed Precision Shooting semi-final, beating Turkey's Yagmur Tosun and Omer Ceylan 20-15 in the quarter-final before losing 12-29 to Thailand's Panadda Suekam and Saharat Aramrod, taking bronze. She was also part of Madagascar's Mixed Triples squad alongside Andriambelonony and Avotiana Eliot Raberanto - beating Italy 13-1 in the round of 16 and Switzerland 13-4 in the quarterfinal before a narrow 11-13 semi-final loss to France in an 18-end match that ran over two hours, taking bronze there too, a step down from Madagascar's 2025 Mixed Triples silver - see our 2026 World Youth Championship results for the full recap of all three disciplines.

Ramamonjisoa was on court for all three medals: partnering Andriambelonony throughout the doubles and precision shooting events, and joining Andriambelonony and Raberanto for the triples campaign. Her twin sister Nameno Ramamonjisoa was also part of Madagascar's four-player delegation to Santa Susanna, though it was Nomena, not Nameno, who played in all three disciplines. Reflecting afterward on team fatigue during the tournament, Ramamonjisoa noted that she had effectively been on court "from start to finish" across the week's events.

A Family and Federation Effort

Nomena and Nameno are twins, and both were part of Madagascar's four-player U18 delegation to Santa Susanna, alongside Andriambelonony and Raberanto. The team's coach, Lalaina Ratsimbaharison, credited two months of intensive preparation for the squad's performance, ranking Madagascar among the world's top three youth petanque nations alongside Thailand and France. On the squad's return, family members and federation officials welcomed the four players at Ivato Airport, followed by a motorcade to Barea Stadium; Analamanga League president Ravaka Andriantsiferana called for more sustained preparation support and a dedicated national petanque facility going forward, and Madagascar's sports minister, Alain Desire Rasambany, announced plans for a new boulodrome and formal recognition for the champions. That recognition followed in late August 2026, when Madagascar's Head of State, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, decorated all four Santa Susanna athletes and their coach with National Order honors at a ceremony in Iavoloha, alongside a state cash prize for each athlete.

Reflecting a broader ambition for her career, Ramamonjisoa has said she wants to "follow in the footsteps of her predecessors" ("je veux suivre les traces de mes predecesseurs") - a nod to Madagascar's status as one of pétanque's strongest nations outside France, alongside two senior Men's Triples World Championship titles and the country's history-making 2025 win at the Mondial la Marseillaise à Pétanque.

Legacy

At 16, Nomena Ramamonjisoa is already a three-time world-championship medalist (gold and two bronzes, across all three disciplines she contested) and a returning gold medalist on the international U18 circuit, part of a Malagasy youth program that FIPJP officials and Madagascar's own federation have flagged as one of the sport's most productive outside Europe. With her career only two years old as of her 2026 title defense, and continued domestic investment in youth petanque under discussion following the team's homecoming, she is a name likely to keep recurring as Madagascar's junior pipeline feeds into its senior national squad.