11th Indian Ocean Islands Games: Badminton |02 September 2023

Alisen Camille and Jie Luo in action in the mixed double event (Photo: Roland Duval)

Team Seychelles exit competition in quarterfinals

There will not be any medals for Team Seychelles in badminton at the ongoing 11th Indian Ocean Islands Games in Madagascar, following defeats in all their quarterfinal matches yesterday at the Zone Expo Arena in Tanjombato, Antananarivo, Madagascar.

The Seychellois badminton players were in action in five quarterfinals: ladies’ singles, ladies’ doubles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles.

In the ladies’ singles, Alisen Camille was up against Fathimath Abdul Razzaq of the Maldives and lost the match 0-2 (10-21, 23-25).

Camille was in action again in the women’s doubles where she paired up with her cousin Juliette Waye-Hive to face Lorna Bodha and Kobita Dookhee from Mauritius. After losing the first set 14-21, Camille and Waye-Hive stepped up their game in the second set which they won 21-11, sending the match into a third and decider set.

It all started well for the Seychellois duo who were coordinating well to keep the score close in the beginning, until Mauritius managed to take a 7-6 lead which they maintained before stretching it up to 11-7. Then Waye-Hive and Camille closed the score to 13-12.

Despite the pressure from our local duo, the young Mauritians kept their composure and maintained a two-point lead – 16-14, 17-15, 19-17 – before extending it three points – 20-17.

Seychelles managed to score one more point, before Mauritius scored the winning point, ending the set on a 21-18 score to win the match 2-1.

The other women’s doubles match featured Jessy Mancienne and Sejal Sha, against S. Razafimamonjiarison and S. Razanamaly. After the Malagasies had won the first set 21-3, the Seychelles team had to call it a day as Mancienne could not continue since she had picked up an injury.

Camille made her third appearance on the court in the mixed doubles where she paired up with Jie Luo to play against the Mauritian duo of Julien Paul and Kate Ludik.

From the beginning of the match, it was clear that the Mauritians were better technically, but it did not stop our local players from putting up a good fight to closely lose the first set 18-21.

In the second set, however, the Paul and Ludik duo showed their superiority as they dominated the game, winning the set 21-11 and the match 2-0.

In the men’s doubles, Seychelles was being represented by the Malcouzane brothers – Steve and Aaron –who were up against Rahary Ramanana and Julio Randriamalala of Madagascar.

Again, despite their good fighting spirit, the two brothers were eliminated after losing the match 0-2.

The set scores were 16-21 and 13-21.

Roland Duval