8th Indian Ocean Island Games-R2,256,000 to be disbursed on Night of Champions |31 August 2011

The evening during which the medallists will be rewarded for their achievements, will start at 6pm at the International Conference Centre.

Seychelles won a record-breaking 57 gold medals, 24 silver and 37 bronze for a grand total of 118 in the 12 sporting disciplines in the Games which ran from August 5-14.

The 57 gold-medal haul beat the previous high of 43 won in Mauritius in 2003. It helped Seychelles finish an unprecedented second behind Reunion (58 gold medals) in the final medals standings at the end of the Games.

For the third Games in a row, female swimmer Shrone Austin was Seychelles’ top individual performer with 10 medals – five gold in the 400m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 800m freestyle, 200m individual medley and 400m individual medley, two silver 200m breaststroke and 4x200m freestyle relay, and three bronze in the 100m breaststroke, 4x100m medley relay and 4x100m freestyle relay.

She will go home with R96,000 tonight.
Each gold medal won at this year’s Games is worth R15,000, a silver R6,000 and a bronze R3,000.

The decision to increase the prize-money from R7,500 (gold), R5,000 (silver) and R2,500 (bronze) was taken by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports prior to the start of Games so as to encourage the athletes to train harder and reap the best possible results.

This could well have been a motivating factor in the results achieved in front of buoyant fans who came to the venues in their hundreds to support the local athletes.

Gold-medal winning coaches – regardless of the number of gold their athletes won during the Games – will receive R15,000 while their assistants will get R10,000.

If athletes and coaches will be rewarded tonight, all cooks and people who worked in the canteen at the Games’ Village on Ile Persévérance got together two weeks ago, while the volunteers’ night is on Friday September 2, starting at 7pm at the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Hotel.

G. G.