Athletics - Natasha Chetty wins high jump gold medal. |30 April 2018

Natasha Chetty is the junior female high jump champion of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Southern Region Youth and Junior Championship.

On Saturday - the second and final day of the championship - at the Boksburg Athletics Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Chetty won the female junior (under-20) gold medal after the clearing the bar at a height of 1.75m to relegate South Africans Yvonne Robson (1.75m) and Kristi Snyman (1.70m) into second and third places respectively.

Chetty achieved the feat despite Cuban coach Carlos Sanchez staying behind as he did not receive his visa on time to travel to South Africa. Only coach Linda Jeanne was able to accompany the athletes on their trip.

Seychelles won a second medal – a silver – at the championship through Mervyn Monthy in the male junior (under-20) long jump event.

With a best leap of 6.68m, Monthy settled for second place and the silver medal behind South African Aaron Pedro who won with an effort of 7.39m.

With the two medals, Seychelles finished joint-fifth with Mauritius on the final medals table. Hosts South African picked up the most medals – 141 (75 gold, 57 silver and 9 bronze) – to be ranked first.

The following are the results of the other Seychellois athletes at the championship.

Charlain Lafortune was fourth in the female youth (U18) high jump with a bar of 1.45m and the event was won by South African Bianca Erasmus with an effort of 1.73m.

Janosh Moncherry clocked 11.46 seconds to be ranked 12th and last in the male junior (U20) 100m race won by Retshidisitswe Mlenga of South Africa who reached the finish line in 10.26 seconds.

As for Stefano Bibi, he finished the male junior (U20) 400m race in 49.17 seconds for ninth place out of 15 competitors. Race winner Zazini Sokwakhana of South Africa was credited with a time of 46.07 seconds.

Bibi also ran the male junior (U20) 200m and clocked 22.13 seconds for a personal best to take 12th place overall, two places higher than fellow Seychellois Janosh Moncherry who finished 14th with a time of 22.81 seconds. The gold medal was won by South African Thando Dlodlo in 20.70 seconds.

Norris Brioche could not go beyond the 2m mark as he only registered a best jump of 1.95m to finish fifth in the male junior (U20) high jump won by South African Breyton Poole with a bar of 2.16m.

Natasha Chetty was again in action in the female junior (U20) long jump event and had to accept finishing fifth with a best leap of 5.24m, 41cm short of the performance of gold medallist Michaela Wright of South Africa (5.65m).

Team                                                       Gold        Silver       Bronze     Total

South Africa                                               75            57            9             141

Zimbabwe                                                  2              3              14            19

Botswana                                                    1              7             10           18

Lesotho                                                      1              1             3             5

Mauritius                                                    1              1              0              2

Seychelles                                                  1             1              0              2

South Africa Individuals                                 0              5             19           24

Zambia                                                       0             2              0              2

Namibia                                                      0              1             8              9

Swaziland                                                    0             1             3             4

Mozambique                                                0             0              3             3