Sports Review 2016 - Young talents take centre stage |30 December 2016

END-OF-YEAR  ISSUE

2016 has been another year where sports took centre stage and once again athletes from individual sports performed way above those who practice team sports.

In a year when the Olympic Games were the centre of attraction in the world, the notable Seychellois achievers were young tennis prodigy Damien Laporte, female swimmers Alexus Laird and Felicity Passon, bodybuilder Ziad Al Adou Meckdachi, legendary sailor Allan Julie, and the women’s volleyball team of Arsu.

Let’s profile all these memories in our year-end review. Happy reading!

Damien Laporte, the African king

In tennis, Damien Laporte remains on course to become one of Seychelles’ best ever tennis players after the youngster earned admission into the Justin Henin Academy in Belgium, where he is training alongside some of the most promising young players in the world.

Laporte became the king of Africa in the boys’ under-14 age category after triumphing in the final of the 39th ITF/CAT African Junior Championships in Pretoria, South Africa.

In his quest for the title and to become the African under-14 king, Laporte was up against Nigerian Michael Osewa in the boys’ singles final at the University of Pretoria High Performance Centre in Pretoria and he won quite convincingly on a 2-0 (7-5, 6-4) score to give himself a nice and early 14th birthday present.

With the win, Laporte, the first Seychellois to reach an African Junior Championships final, is now ranked number one in Africa in the under-14 age category.

“I just can’t imagine it. It was my goal for this year to win the under-14 singles title at the ITF/CAT African Junior Championships and I tried to go as far as I could. And I’ve done even better. When I passed the group stage, I knew I stood a chance of winning the title, but there were many obstacles along the way,” Laporte told Sports NATION.

Doubles gold, singles silver for Seychelles

At the 2016 East African Junior Tennis Championship in Nairobi, Kenya, Seychelles won two medals – a gold in the boys’ doubles and a silver in the boys’ singles to qualify two players for the Africa Junior Championship.

Damien Laporte was the country’s top player at the tournament as he teamed up with Theo Barois to win the under-14 boys’ doubles gold medal against a Kenyan pair 2-0 (6-4, 6-4), but he lost the under-14 boys’ singles final to Kenyan Ryan Randiek on a 1-2 (3-6, 7-6, 0-6) score.

Laporte qualified for the Africa Junior Championship in Pretoria, South Africa and was accompanied by Shaun Andriamaro who was ranked sixth in the under-16 boys’ singles category.

2016 also saw the visit of French professional tennis player Jeremy Chardy, a man once ranked 25 worldwide.

Allan Julie, African Laser champion

This year was a very good year for Seychelles sailing as the sport produced three of the five Seychellois qualifiers for the Olympics, with Rodney Govinden, Allan Julie and Jean-Marc Gardette all representing Seychelles in Rio.

Aside from taking part in the Olympic Games, Allan Julie also claimed the African Laser title earlier this month in Maputo, Mozambique, with Chantal Hoffman claiming silver in the women’s laser 4.7 class.

This year, Seychelles also played host to the Indian Ocean Regional Sailing Championships, where both Seychelles and Mauritius won three cups each out of the six sailing class categories but Seychelles team won the best overall trophy as its athletes came out more in second positions in the different categories.

The individual Seychellois winners were Ryan Alcindor (Optimist), Kenny Constance (Laser Standard) and Allan Julie (Laser Radial).

Laird, Passon on the rise

Adam Viktora and Alexus Laird represented Seychelles at the Rio Olympic Games and they both must have found the experience extremely fulfilling.

This year, Seychelles swimming also discovered a new talent in the form of Italy-based Aaliyah Paletrini, who visited Seychelles in September and has some very impressive times.

Other highlights of this year’s swimming season for Seychelles included Seychelles’ partaking at various international events, such as the Confédération Africaine de natation zone 4 championship held in Mauritius, where the athletes managed to rack up 13 medals – 1 gold, 6 silver and 6 bronze – in the swimming pool.

Nicole Grasselli Barni won Seychelles’ only gold medal in the pool when she clinched victory in the 800m freestyle 15-16 years old category in a time of 10 minutes 00.78 seconds (10:00.78). Grasselli Barni also claimed two bronze medals in the 200m backstroke and 400m freestyle (4:34.94).

Therese Soukup won three silver medals in the 100m backstroke (1:11.89), 50m backstroke (33.07 seconds) and 200m freestyle (2:18.49) in the 13-14 years old category. She also claimed a bronze medal in the 200m backstroke event.

Joshua Miller was also a multiple medal winner, winning silver in the 200m breaststroke and 100m butterfly, while also gaining bronze in the 100m breaststroke and 200m individual medley in the 12 years old and under category.

Samuele Rossi took the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke (3:03.28) and Damien Payet won bronze in the 200m freestyle event (2:21.99) in the 12 years old and under category.

There were 8 more gold medals for Seychelles in open water swimming but they did not count on the medals table. The gold medallists were Daniel Ferley, Samuele Rossi (1km), Damien Payet, Therese Soukoup, Nicole Grasselli Barni, Dean Hoffman (3km), and Bertrand Payet (5km).

Thierry Payet was also a winner in the 1km but he was not part of the Seychelles team.

Laird wins 50m backstroke gold at African Championship

Alexus Laird single-handedly brought Seychelles fourth place overall in the medals standings at the end of the 12th African Swimming Championship in Bloemfontein, South Africa with four medals – one gold, one silver and two bronze.
Laird took the women’s 50m backstroke gold medal on day one by topping the final in a time of 30.68 secondsand she was the only athlete under the 31-second mark.

Her silver medal came in the 100m backstroke on day three with a time of 1 minute 05.53 seconds (1:05.53). The backstroke specialist’s bronze medals came on the fifth and sixth days of the championship. She lost the 50m freestyle silver medal to Rowan El Badry of Egypt who got her hand to the wall just ahead of her with 27.02 seconds. She had to settle for third place with 27.03 seconds. On day six, Laird was third for the bronze medal in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:22.67.

Passon clinches relay silver medal at ASA Winter Champs

Female swimmer Felicity Passon managed to set a new personal best time as well as win a silver medal at the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) Winter Championships in England.

Swimming for the Plymouth Leander Team, her silver medal came with the help of her teammates as they managed to finish in second place in the 4x100m freestyle relay with a time of 3 minutes 38.92 seconds. They lost the gold medal to the Co Sheffield team who clocked 3:39:82

Her personal best came with a time of 29.05 seconds in the 50m backstroke event to finish 22nd out of 60 swimmers.

Passon was Seychelles’ best swimmer at the 13th Fina world short course championship in Windsor, Canada by pulverising five national records, while Alexus Laird improved one of her own.

All-conquering season for 10-time CAVB Zone 7 champs Arsu

2016 has been another good year for the Arsu team as they once again managed to conquer all locally on their way to claiming a third successive women’s CAVB Zone 7 IOCC title in Mauritius and their 10th title – a new record.

With a 3-0 win over Quatre Bornes VBC who were playing in front of their fans, Arsu crushed all in their path as their players claimed all but one of the individual honours in Mauritius.

Marielle Bonne was named Most Valuable Player, best attacker and best receptionist, setter Melina Crispin won the best server title, Matty Molta was chosen as the best libero and Malagasy Melissa Rambony was voted the best blocker.

Men’s teams Premium Spikers and Beau Vallon did not achieve anything close to the same feat though as they came back empty handed from their efforts.

Meanwhile, on the local scene, after much turmoil within the federation, Ronald Wong was finally elected to the top chair in a season that saw history made as Swimblue Pal became the first ever second division side to win the SVF Cup after defeating Beau Vallon in the final.

One of the main changes that occurred this year is how points are awarded in the league, where set points have been given a lot more importance, something which has caused much debate among players and even some fans.

Ziad Mekdachi wins Eric Favre contest

If there is one sport that deserves a pat on the back for the way it has re-established itself as one of the top spectator sports in the country, it should be bodybuilding.

After years stuck in the shadow of the other popular sports, bodybuilding finally found its way in the spotlight once again as an international contest was held here.

The Eric Favre Classic took place at the International Conference Centre (ICCS), where Ziad Al Adou Meckdachi finished as the winner in front of his home crowd. The introduction of the Miss Bikini contest has proven to be a very popular decision, where Rosette Pillay became the first ever winner of the Seychelles Miss Bikini contest and finished in third place at the Eric Favre tournament.

Other highlights include the Mr Seychelles tournament won by Meckdachi, while the Mr Regatta contest remains absent and uncertain of a return.

Andrique Allisop African bronze medallist

Boxing has also had a good year, despite a shaky start following some confusions with regard to the annual general meeting, but things worked out well in the end, with Bryan Esparon elected to head Seychelles’ boxing.

Andrique Allisop was the only Seychellois boxer at the Olympic Games, earning qualification after claiming the 60kg category bronze medal at the International Boxing Association (Aiba) African Continental Olympic qualifying event in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

He needed to win his third place play-off and he convincingly beat Tunisian Shili Alaa 3-0 to join Egyptian gold medallist Abdelaal Mahmoud and Algerian silver medallist Reda Benbaziz on the plane to Rio.

The Seychellois fighter lost 0-3 to Algerian number one seed Reda Benbaziz in the first semifinal.

Allisop also won a gold medal at the International ‘Boxam’ Boxing tournament in Tenerife, Spain.

Meanwhile, the Seychelles Boxing Federation introduced a boxing league which has seen boxers compete on a monthly basis for the last five months.

2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro

2016 saw the arrival in Rio de Janeiro of 10 Seychellois athletes and five of them earned their place at the Olympics by achieving the qualifying standards.

They were boxer Andrique Allisop, judoka Dominic Dugasse, windsurfer Jean-Marc Gardette and sailors Allan Julie (Finn) and Rodney Govinden (Laser).

The other athletes who completed the team were Lissa Labiche (high jump), Ned Azemia (400m hurdles), Rick Confiance (weightlifting) and swimmers Alexus Laird and Adam Viktora who were all invited to compete.

While the chase for the elusive Olympic medal goes on, our athletes did manage to garner some much-needed experience that will go a long way towards better preparing them for their next Olympic adventure, while the older ones will now be able to pass on their experience to the younger generation, who will be eager to learn.

CJSOI Games

The CJSOI Games were the other big international event for our Seychellois athletes who made the short journey to Madagascar to compete against our Indian Ocean neighbours in athletics, table tennis, judo, girls’ football and boys’ handball.

Our young athletes achieved 14 medals – 2 gold medals, 7 silver and 5 bronze – and the medallists were:

Gold medals: Calvin Stravens (male high jump), Tessy Bristol (female 200m);

Silver medals: Male table tennis team of Nicholas Esther, Mario de Charmoy Lablache, Bjorn Mousbé and Mael Youpa, Michel Evenor (male shot put), Nicholas Esther (table tennis male singles), Julia Ernesta (judo -57kg), Tessy Bristol (female 400m), girls’ medley relay team of Shanita Marie, Dora Samson, Tessy Bristol and Meryle Rabat, and Natacha Chetty (female high jump);

Bronze medals: Michel Evenor (male 110m hurdles), Mario de Charmoy Lablache (table tennis male singles), Suraya Rose (judo -48kg), Dora Samson (female long jump) and Stephano Bibi (male 400m).

“I feel that the Seychellois athletes did quite well, although I think we could have done better,” was how head of delegation Francis Remie, described our young athletes’ performance.

He added: “I see a lot of potential in these young athletes and I am sure that among them there will be a few who will be part of Team Seychelles at the 2019 Indian Ocean Island Games in Mauritius.”

Paralympics

2016 also saw the return of Seychelles at the Paralympic Games and Cyril Charles competed in the men’s javelin F57 event reserved for wheelchair athletes.

He threw the javelin a distance of 16.97m to finish in 14th position in the event won by Iran’s Mohammad Khalvandi with a best throw of 46.12m. The silver medal went to Abdollah Heidari Til also of Iran with a distance of 43.77m and the bronze was taken by Ngoc Hung Cao of Vietnam who threw the javelin over a distance of 43.27m.

Zwe Lespwar Sesel

The second Zwe Lespwar Sesel took place in April this year, where young athletes had the chance to showcase their talents in various sports, including basketball, volleyball, football and table tennis.

This year, it was Anse Royale who were rewarded as the best school after claiming a total of 25 medals – 10 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze – to edge International School who garnered 20 medals – 10 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze.

Records in athletics

Athletics saw two of their athletes – Lissa Labiche and Ned Azemia - compete at the Olympics.

The year though for athletics began with the record-breaking performances from Meryle Rabat and Mervin Monthy in the third and final set of races of the cross country series. Rabat stopped the clock at 15 minutes 32.4 seconds (15:32.4) to erase from the record books Phylis Labonne’s old best time of 15:35.0 set on February 10, 2006, in the female under-18 4km race.

As for Monthy, who was racing in the male under-18 4km race, he crossed the finish line in 12:24.5 to better Travis Boniface’s previous best time of 13:25.2 seconds set on December 15, 2012.

Another record-breaking performance of the year came from Ned Azemia, who is now the holder of the junior and senior 400m hurdles records, a record broken at the National Championships in July. Azemia finished the race in a time of 51.09 seconds on the tracks of local athletics garden – Stad Popiler – to break 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.

He bettered both records at the Olympics. Competing in the men’s 400m hurdles heat 3, Azemia finished eighth with a time of 50.74 seconds, erasing his own national record of 51.09 seconds set on July 9 during the National Championship at Stad Popiler.

“This was my fastest race ever. It's both a junior national record and senior national record, so I am happy for the record,” said 18-year-old Azemia.

Dylan Sicobo set a new junior 100m sprint record as he finished the race at the Mauritius International Meet in a time of 10.53 seconds to slash 20 milliseconds off his own previous record of 10.73 seconds set in Nairobi, Kenya last year.

At the 40th National School Athletics Championships, seven records were broken as La Digue Primary, Anse Royale Secondary and Seychelles Institute of Technology (SIT) finished as the best schools for the year.

Beau Vallon Heat win first league title, B Challenge make clean sweep

In basketball, after last year’s issues, things went on quite smoothly this time under new chairman Jean-Guy Alphonse and it was Steven André and Laura Françoise who were named the male and female basketball players of the year respectively.

There was not much on the international front, but locally, the main story was the triumph of Beau Vallon Heat who won their first ever league title, guided by player of the year Steven André and Most Valuable Player (MVP) Timmy Adam. They went on to win the Seychelles Basketball Federation (SBF) Cup.

Meanwhile on the women’s side, B Challenge completed a clean sweep as they won the Curtain-raiser, league and SBF Cup trophies to end a perfect year, although they were without one of their best players in the later part of the season as Jana Malbrook has sought to take the challenge of professional basketball in France.

There will be two Premium Cobras sides in the men’s first division next year as Premium Cobras Youth won promotion to the top division, although they have suggested that a name change could be on the cards.

The big news for basketball fans ahead of next year though will be the renovation of the Victoria Gymnasium, which has been affected by rain for a very long time. Surely fans will be pleased that finally something is being done to rectify this issue.

Meanwhile in badminton, it was a quiet year on the international front for badminton, where the under-19 team failed to win any medals at the African Under-19 championships which was held in Casablanca, Morocco in August.

Locally, Alisen Camille and Steve Malcouzane were the first winners of the year, winning the singles titles of the Curtain-raiser tournament. Camille was also victorious in the One-day tournament held in February and also claimed the Seychelles-India Day trophy.

Ghislain also had a good year, where he was victorious at the One-day tournament as well as the Seychelles-India Day tournament, before finally claiming the Closing Cup male singles trophy. It was Noelisa Remie who won the women’s singles Closing Cup final.

Côte d’Or league champions

In football, it was a very eventful year on the international front, although our team’s performances leave a lot yet to be desired.

The national side were in action on numerous occasions, where they failed to qualify from their group in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) 2017 qualifiers. The group comprised Algeria, Ethiopia and Lesotho.

Seychelles also competed at the Cosafa Cup and most recently the Cosafa Under-20 tournament, where both sides failed to meet expectations.

The search for a new coach for the national side will take place once more after Ralph Jean-Louis did not renew his contract and has subsequently agreed a move to league champions Côte d’Or.

Speaking of Côte d’Or, the Praslin outfit claimed only their second league title in their history.

No team will be demoted to the second division this year after Plaisance disbanded during the year. While Plaisance have ceased to exist, one of Seychelles’ former giants Red Star were back this year but were pipped to the third division league title by another newly-formed side, Glacis.

In the second division league, SPDF sealed promotion to the top division, while Real Maldives lost to St John Bosco in the play-offs, meaning they will have to spend 2017 in the second division.

This year also saw Barclays remove its sponsorship for the league championships and the SFF is still searching for new sponsors.

Elvis Chetty was also re-elected into his post as head of the SFF in the elections which took place recently and will be hoping his new team can continue to take Seychelles football to a higher level.

Disappointment for handball

In handball, after starting the year which many projects for youth development, things took a turn for the worse as teams started to shut down during the course of the season.

The Seychelles national sides also competed at the International Handball Federation (IHF) African Zone 7 Challenge Trophy, where the women’s side returned with a bronze medal and the men’s team finished with a silver medal.

There was disappointment at the Indian Ocean Club Championship (IOCC), where MF Storm and Super 8 failed to make an impact, returning empty-handed.

Locally, MF Storm and Durantha Brothers were the winners of the Challenge Cup, with Super 8 and MF Storm claiming the league titles.

In judo,Dominic Dugasse’s appearance at Rio Olympic Games was perhaps the highlight for judo this year as he was one of the five athletes to qualify for the games.

Nantenaina Finesse once more proved that he is one of the brightest young prospects coming from the sport as he grabbed a bronze medal at the African Junior Championships in Casablanca, Morocco.

Meanwhile, in what was a relatively quiet year for weightlifting, Rick Confiance’s involvement at the Rio Olympic Games was a particular highlight, although there were not many good results on the international scene for our lifters.

Things were blighted by more negative headlines, as two athletes tested positive for banned substances, with one of them banned for four years and forced to return medals won at the Commonwealth Championships and All-Africa Games in 2015.

A team of three lifters failed to return to Seychelles with anything to show for their efforts, in an otherwise unusually quiet year for the sport.

Compiled by S. N.

Captions:

Allan Julie, African Laser champion

Players of league champions Côte d’Or celebrate a victory

Arsu enjoyed another all-conquering season including a record 10-time CAVB Zone 7 win

Damien Laporte, the African tennis king

LAIRD: 50m backstroke African Championship gold medallist

Men’s basketball champions Beau Vallon Heat

The team who took part in the CJSOI Games

Passon broke a number of Seychelles records this year