12th African Games in Rabat, Morocco Passon wins 50m backstroke silver, 100m butterfly bronze |24 August 2019

Felicity Passon won two more medals – a silver and a bronze – for Seychelles yesterday in the ongoing 12th African Games in Rabat, Morocco.

Passon, who qualified for the women’s 50m backstroke final with the fastest time of 29.47 seconds, could only take second place and the silver medal in the final after touching the wall of the Mohammed V Olympic Swimming Pool in a time of 29.17 seconds for a new Seychelles record.

The previous record of 29.30 seconds belonged to Passon herself and she got it at the South West Age Group competition in Plymouth, England in 2017.

South African Erin Gallagher claimed the gold medal in 29.05 seconds, while Batswana Ruele Naomi won the bronze medal in 29.22 seconds.

In her first final swam yesterday, Passon won a bronze medal in the 100m butterfly, clocking 1 minute 00.61 seconds (1:00.61) for a new Seychelles record.

The previous best time was 1:00.82 set in 2017 by Passon herself at the South West Age Group competition in Plymouth, England.

The women’s 100m butterfly gold medal was won by Egyptian Farida Osman (58.79 seconds) and the silver went to South African Erin Gallagher (59.34 seconds).

Passon also has a gold medal at the Games and she won it in the 200m backstroke event in a new Seychelles record time of 2:14.55 on the first day of the swimming competition on Wednesday.

It means Seychelles has three medals – one gold, one silver and one bronze – so far at the Games and they all belong to Passon.

Still in swimming, the Bachmann brothers – Mathieu and Simon – swam together in the third heat of the men’s 100m butterfly event. Mathieu clocked 57.34 seconds and his younger brother Simon finished in 58.57 seconds.

Simon also swam the men’s 50m backstroke in 29.01 seconds.

Samuele Rossi was in action in the men’s 200m breaststroke and he stopped the clock at 2 minutes 31.01 seconds (2:31.01).

As for Khema Elizabeth, she finished in a time of 37.00 seconds in the women’s 50m backstroke.

In boxing, Andrique Allisop, who won a bye into the eighth final of the 63kg class, was to fight Moroccan Nadir Abdelhaq last night.

Abdelhaq won his fight on a 5-0 score against Tunisian Ben Haj Aouina Akrem to set up the fight against Allisop.

In volleyball, the country’s women’s team are to play their second group A match today against hosts Morocco after downing Nigeria 3-2 (25-23, 18-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-11) in their first game on Thursday.

Their third and final pool A match is against Botswana on Monday August 26.

Morocco won their first match against Botswana on a 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-18) score.

G. G.