Badji won a silver medal at the African Junior Championships in 2001. He then competed at the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica. Here, he finished ninth in the triple jump. In the long jump competition he exited in the qualification round with a result of 7.37 metres. He missed the final round by only one centimetre. His personal bests at that time were 7.83 metres in the long jump and 16.30 metres in the triple jump, both achieved in Dakar. Later that season he finished fifth at the African Championships in Athletics. He jumped 7.90, albeit with a wind assistance of 3.6 m/s.