African Sambo Championship 2018 - Amanda Payet maintains her silver medal |04 July 2018

Seychellois athlete Amanda Payet has won a silver medal in the women’s 80+kg sambo sport category at this year’s African Sambo Championship, held in Hammanet, Tunisia from June 21-26.

Payet has retained the silver medal won at last year’s tournament which took place here in Seychelles.

She lost her final bout to the same Dechantal Fokou Ntiolack of Cameroon who defeated her last year and claimed the gold.

Tunisia’s Guileni Manel finished third in the category.

Payet said she was not intimidated by the level of the other athletes, but some hiccups in the organisation had some negative impacts on the performances.

She explained that the competition was delayed, with most of the athletes already warmed up and ready to compete.

As for her opponent in the final, Payet admitted that she is a level higher than her, in terms of skill and techniques.

Other than the championships, Tunisia also hosted the annual Congress of the African Sambo Confederation (Cas) which was attended by representatives of national Sambo federations from 12 countries of the African continent, including Seychelles which was being represented by Marie-Annette Vidot.

Led by Cas president Dalil Skalli, the congress gave its approval of host countries for the African Championships of 2019 and 2020. This right was assigned to the Kingdom of Morocco (2019) and to the Republic of the Congo (2020).