Handball-Dogley continues to lead handball, prepares for exciting season |11 February 2013

Mr Dogley, who chaired the caretaker committee before being elected as the first Seychelles Handball Federation (SHF) chairman in 2003, will lead local handball for another two seasons – his sixth two-year terms.

Mr Dogley will for the next two years work with a new secretary general – Sharon Labrosse – who has taken over from Marie-Claire Chetty. As for Helmy Riage, he is back with the sport as treasurer after a four-year absence. Riage was instrumental in getting handball off the ground here.

The eight ordinary members voted into office are Marie-Claire Chetty, Bernard Valentin, Danny Philoé, Nathalie Samynadin, Alix Dufresne, Tony Hortère, Sharon Hokan and Emmanuel Larue.

While Philoé has the task of heading the technical committee, Larue is responsible for the referees’ committee.
Speaking to Sports Nation, Mr Dogley said his federation aims to prepare the country’s under-17 teams for next year’s Jeux de la Commission de la Jeunesse et des Sports de l’Océan Indien (CJSOI) in Djibouti and the Indian Ocean Club Championship (IOCC) in November.

Mr Dogley explained that besides the normal local competitions, local handballers will get the opportunity to play against opponents form the Indian Ocean region.

“Last year, Seychelles’ handball celebrated 10 years of existence and we did not organise something special. We will try to do it this year although our main targets are preparing our country’s teams for the Jeux de la CJSOI and IOCC,” he said.

“The teams who are getting ready for the Jeux de la CJSOI will play against opponents from Mauritius in July or August. In fact, players on the teams have been playing together since last year and we will use the friendly matches to get them in full gear for the Games in Djibouti.

“As for the IOCC, the tentative dates are November 9-11, but a final decision will be taken during a meeting with all federation chairpersons of the region in August,” said Mr Dogley.

The SHF has organised the IOCC once in 2009 and matches were played at the Palais des Sports.
Locally, there will be the Mohan Shopping Centre-sponsored league championship, SHF Cup, Challenge Cup, Curtain-raiser tournament and at least two beach handball tournaments.

Coached by Danny ‘Mathias’ Philoé, Mont Fleuri Storm and Super 8 are the women’s and men’s defending league champions.

Formerly known as Rybar, Mont Fleuri Storm won a sixth consecutive league title in 2012 after finishing the three-round championship unbeaten – nine wins in as many matches for a maximum 27 points.

Super 8 amassed 33 points in the two-round men’s league after 10 wins, a draw and a loss for their third league title win in a row.

Mont Fleuri Storm and Super 8 are also the reigning Curtain-raiser winners.
Spearheaded by Claire Marguerite, Mont Fleuri Storm beat main rivals Royale Queens by a 10-goal margin – 28-18 – to win the curtain-raiser title.

In the men’s match, Super 8 distanced themselves from PLS Hurricanes in the second period to earn a 45-34 victory in what looked likely to be a tight game.

The season-opening Challenge Cup tournament titles are also Mont Fleuri Storm’s and Super 8’s possession.

In the finals, Mont Fleuri Storm defeated Teens 36-20 and Super 8 were victorious on a 41-34 score against Durantha Brothers.
In December last year, Royal Queens (women) and Young Eagles (men) won the season-ending SHF Cup after defeating Teenz and Durantha Brothers in the finals at the Palais des Sports.

If the young and inexperienced Teenz team were no match for Royal Queens in a 12-51 loss, the country’s men’s under-21 side Young Eagles overpowered Durantha Brothers 32-31 in a highly-contested and interesting encounter.

G. G.