Cana Zone IV swimming championship |24 March 2018

Therese Soukup, Damien Payet, Nathan Nagapin capture gold medals

Therese Soukup, Damien Payet and Nathan Nagapin picked up a gold medal each on the third day of competition yesterday at the 2018 Cana Zone IV swimming championship in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Going into the last day of competition today, Seychelles lies fifth on the 13-team table with 16 medals ‒ eight gold, six silver and two bronze.

Soukup won the female 14 years and under 400m freestyle in 4 minutes 40.32 seconds (4:40.32) to relegate South Africans Lize-Marie Davidson (4:40.65) and Hannah Cromhout (4:51.36) into second and third positions.

This is her third gold medal after also winning the female under-14 800m freestyle race in 9:43.46 and female 13-15 years 200m freestyle in 2:11.68.

Nathan Nagapin triumphed in the male 12 years and under 50m freestyle with a time of 28.56 seconds to finish way in front of runner-up Khushal Fernando of Zambia (29.16 seconds) and third place finisher Liam Rumball also of Zambia (29.24 seconds).

Like Soukup, Nagapin has also won three gold medals so far and his other two came in the male under-15 50m breaststroke (35.47 seconds) and male 12 years and under 200m freestyle (2:18.18).

Damien Payet hit the wall first in the male 14 years and under 400m freestyle in a winning time of 4:31.39, more than 10 seconds faster than runner-up Dylan Huang of Zimbabwe (4:42.04), while Mauritian Victor Ah Yong took third place (4:42.06).

Payet won his first gold medal in the male under-14 800m freestyle in 9:11.58.

The six silver medals have been won by Soukup in the female 13-14 100m backstroke (1:07.88), female 13-14 years 50m freestyle (28.00 seconds) and female 13-14 years 50m backstroke (32.23 seconds); Nagapin male 12 and under 100m breaststroke (1:18.79) and male 12 years and under 200m breaststroke (2:56.21); and Alan Vidot male 13-14 years 100m breaststroke (1:14.05)

The bronze medallists are: Therese Soukup female 13-14 years 200m backstroke (2:30.37) and Nagapin male 12 years and under 50m butterfly (32.07 seconds).