Ephelia hotel brings financial backing to hurdler Azemia |01 August 2016

Hurdler Ned Azemia will be making his debut at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and this week he received financial support from Constance Ephelia Seychelles.

The Port Launay-based hotel gave the Port Glaud resident a cheque for R4,000 for his trip to the Rio Games where he will come across many of the world’s big track and field stars during the biggest multi-sports event.

Constance Ephelia Seychelles general manager Kai Hoffmeister handed over the cheque to the young hurdler who two weeks ago pulverised the junior and senior 400m hurdles record with a time of 51.09 seconds in one single race during the two-day National Championship at Stad Popiler. His time improved the junior record of 51.80 seconds which belonged to himself as well as the 21-year-old senior record of 51.22 seconds set in 1995 by Stephan Banane.

Present at the ceremony were Samuel Pellegini, executive assistant manager Constance Ephelia Seychelles; Cedric Kate, the landscape manager and also responsible for the hotel’s corporate social responsibility activities; Alda Azemia, Ned’s mother and manager of Port Glaud Athletics Club, as well as Ned’s coach Linda Jeanne, herself a former athlete who grabbed the heptathlon gold medal at the 1993 Indian Ocean Island Games held here.

This is the second time this year Constance Ephelia Seychelles sponsors the hurdler after also giving him R4,000 in June prior to attending a training camp in France.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Azemia reached the semifinals of the 400m hurdles at the IAAF World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

He finished second in heat number five in a time of 51.50 seconds behind race winner Tunisian Mohamed Fares JLassi (51.49 seconds). And in the first semifinal, Azemia clocked 51.64 seconds to finish fourth thus missing on qualifying for the final and it was again Tunisian JLassi who dominated the race in 50.82 seconds. Unfortunately for the Tunisian he could not do well in the final as he was ranked eighth and last (52.14 seconds) in a race that saw Jamaican Jaheel Hyde take the gold medal in 49.03 seconds. The silver and bronze medals were won by American Taylor McLaughlin (49.45 seconds) and Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands (49.56 seconds).

A second Seychellois athlete, sprinter Dyland Sicobo, also represented the country at the championships and he finished fourth with a time of 10.48 seconds in the first 100m heat.

It was American Noah Lyles who won the gold medal ion 10.17 seconds while Italian Filippo Tortu took the silver with 10.24 seconds and Mario Burke of Barbados captured the bronze with 10.26 seconds.