Sports governing bodies urged to be punctual |12 June 2018

It is important for the different sporting federations and associations to be punctual with their programmes and calendars so that the National Sports Council can help them, board chairman Eddie Micock has said.

Mr Micock made the statement during the NSC’s first forum for the year, held last week at the Maison Football auditorium, Roche Caïman.

The meeting which gathered leaders and other senior representatives of the various local sports governing bodies, representatives of the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga), NSC board members was attended by principal secretary for youth and sports Fabian Palmyre, chief executive of the NSC Giovanna Rousseau who is also a board member along with senior officials of the NSC.

Mr Micock said each and every sporting body should take its own responsibility in preparing and handing in their programmes well in advance so that the authority can work on how to better accommodate them financially.

With the full cooperation and dedication of the federations, Mr Micock said, it will be easier to help them.

He also urged them to, as much as they can, to try and look for some sponsors to compliment the support from the government.

Illustrating the proper structure of sports and how it should run, Mr Micock referred to Seychelles’ sports as a vehicle, with members of the public being the owner, while the NSC team is the engine.

The board, Mr Micock said, is the fuel, while the sporting federations and associations were referred to as the driver.

“All parties are important for the vehicle to reach its destination,” explained Mr Micock.

He also added that the board encourages the involvement of the public, especially all those who can help financially, or through their various areas of expertise.

Speaking in his capacity as the chairman of the Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) technical committee Mr Palmyre said they are very disappointed as only five sports federations – football, cycling, athletics, volleyball and yachting - out of the 12 selected for next year’s Games in Mauritius, have submitted their plans and costing.

The deadline to hand in the documents was set at end of April 2018.

He explained that the longer they take, the more delay there will be in receiving the funding, thus affecting their preparations for the Games.

Mr Palmyre also urged the federations and associations to include a youth development programme in the plans and to also work harder in that area.

Delegates at the forum also had the chance to learn about the new development regarding the sports medicine unit through a presentation by head of the unit Derick Sauzier.

Mr Sauzier said the unit has now acquired the service of an orthopedic surgeon who will deal with the more serious injury cases, as well as prevention.

He also talked on the setbacks encountered by the unit, especially through lack of communication with the federations and associations.

One typical example is short notice request for health personnel at events.

This, Mr Sauzier said, can cause some inconveniences as they do not have a lot of staff, or in the cases of contact sports, a medical doctor is compulsory at the event.

He noted that some federations and associations are not respecting the 10 working days notice set by the NSC.

Mr Rousseau then walked the delegates through the audited accounts reports, before the director for sports management and development within the NSC Terrence Barbé talked about the sports development plan.

Chairman of the Seychelles Swimming Association (SSA) David Vidot also seized the opportunity at the forum to thank everyone who helped the SSA to organise the recently-held Fédération internationale de natation (Fina) marathon swim world series.

He expressed his gratitude on behalf of the SSA and commented on the way Seychelles transformed into a sporting family for the occasion.

R. D.