Sports Awards of the Year 2004-Thélermont and Julie return as the best |29 January 2005
Sportslady of the Year 2002 Thélermont, who lost her title to Shrone Austin in 2003, reclaimed her title from the swimmer.
As for three-time Sportsman of the Year Julie, whose three-year stranglehold on the title was broken by weightlifter Steven Baccus in 2003, won his fourth title in five years.
As it has been the case over the years, Seychelles Nation presents you with short profiles of the top five chosen from the 10 finalists in both the female and male categories.
Laser sailor Allan Julie (Sportsman of the Year)
International competitions
Spa Regatta 12th out of 76 participants
Kieler Woche Regatta 11th out of 174 participants Sports Awards of the Year 2004
Warnemunde Week Regatta 11th out of 111 participants
European Championship 29th out of 97 participants
Princess Sofia Trophy 23rd out of 58 participants
Athens Eurolymp 29th out of 83 participants
Semaine Olympique Française 33rd out of 159 participants
World Championship 37th out of 145 participants
Olympic Games 20th out of 42 participants
Al-Kharafi International Laser Optimist Open Regatta Bronze medallist
This is Laser sailor Allan Julie’s fourth Sportsman of the Year title after previous triumphs in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Only weightlifter Steven Baccus has been able to break his stranglehold on the title by clinching it in 2003.
In 2004, 27-year-old Julie, third overall in 2003, did not participate in local competitions but competed on par with the world’s best internationally.
At the Olympic Games, his third in a row, Julie, who had top-10 finishes in at least four races, was placed 20th out of 42 sailors in the single-handed dinghy Laser class.
An Olympic Solidarity scholarship holder for many years now, Julie, a 10-time sailor of the year award winner, was given an interim scholarship for the year 2005 at the end of last year.
Julie, who was placed second behind winner Stephen Stravens in the annual Mahe-Praslin windsurfing crossing, also participated in the Al-Kharafi International Laser Optimist Open Regatta in Kuwait and won a bronze medal.
Boxer Kitson Julie (runner-up)
International competitions
15th African Boxing Championship Gold medallist in the 64-kg category
Olympic trials Silver medallist in the 64-kg category
Olympic Games Lost first fight
During the 15th African Boxing Championship in Gaborone, Botswana in 2004, boxer Kitson Julie paved his way on to the highest step of the podium to win the light welterweight (64-kg) gold medal with his killer punches.
The gold medal earned Julie automatic qualification for the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, but he lost 22-51 to Iranian-born Australian Anoushirvan Nourian in his first fight.
Julie, 21, was chosen as the country’s best boxer for the first time in 2001.
Weightlifter Richard Scheer (third place finisher)
International competitions
African Weightlifting Championship Snatch gold medallist
Olympic Games 12th out of 21 participants
Chosen as the country’s best male lifter for the first time in 2004 after having made his debut for Seychelles a year before, Richard Scheer won the 85-kg category snatch gold medal of the African Weightlifting Championship with a best lift of 150kg.
Invited at the last minute to participate in the Olympic Games in Athens Greece, France-based Scheer, 30, finished 12th out of 21 lifters with an Olympic total of 305kg -140kg in the snatch and 165kg in the clean and jerk – in the 85-kg division.
Canoeist Tony Lespoir (fourth place finisher)
National competitions
Winner over distances of 100m, 200m, 400m, 500m in both the KI and K2 series.
International competitions
Olympic Games Semifinalist of the KI 500m flatwater race
Ninth in his K1 1,000m flatwater heat
European Championship Fourth in his K1 200m flatwater heat
Seventh in his K1 1,000m flatwater heat
Paddler Tony Lespoir, 27, made history for the sport of canoeing, which was making its first participation for Seychelles in the Olympic Games, by reaching the semifinal of the 500m K1 flatwater race.
Paddling in heat number four of the qualifiers, Lespoir, who received a wild card to participate in the Games, clocked 2 minutes 02.669 seconds to progress to the second semifinal where he stopped the clock at 2:04.975 for last place in lane nine.
He was placed ninth out of as many athletes in heat number one of the K1 1,000m flatwater race with a time of 4:17.128 in Athens.
Lespoir, a nine-time canoeist of the year since 1996, also participated in the European Championship.
Karateka Jossy Canaya (fifth place finisher)
National competitions
National Championship Silver medallist in the kata competition
International competitions
World Tang Soo Do Championship Silver medallist in the kata competition
African Tang Soo Do Championship Gold medallist in the kata competition
Bronze medallist in the kata with weapon competition
A 25-year veteran in the sport of karate, Jossy Canaya, 40, finished second in the kata competition of the National Championship.
In the World Tang Soo Do Championship in the USA, he won the silver medal in the kata competition.
At the African Tang Soo Do Championship in Maputo, Mozambique, the third dan black belt karateka won the gold medal of the kata competition and bronze in the kata with weapon.
Weightlifter Janet Thélermont (Sportslady of the Year)
National competitions
Association Cup First place
National Open First place
National Championship First place
International competitions
African Championship Clean and jerk gold medallist
Double silver medallist in snatch and Olympic total
South African Open Triple gold medallist
Weightlifter Janet Thélermont returns as Sportslady of the Year after her first win in 2002.
Fifth overall in 2000, fourth in 2001 and runner-up to Shrone Austin in 2003, Thélermont won a gold medal (clean and jerk) and two silver medals (snatch and Olympic total) in the 69-kg division of the African Weightlifting Championship in Tunisia in 2004.
A six-time female weightlifter of the year, Thélermont, 26, also won three gold medals in the South African Open. She is ranked 12th worldwide and second at both African and Commonwealth levels in her category.
She improved her records in both the 69-kg and 75-kg categories in every local competition she participated in.
Weightlifter Julie Matatiken (runner-up)
National competitions
Association Cup First place
National Open First place
National Championship First place
International competitions
African Championship Silver medallist in snatch of the 48-kg category
Double bronze medallist in the clean and jerk and Olympic total of the 48-kg category
Julie Matatiken, 24, broke a number of records in the 48-kg division in three local competitions - the Association Cup, National Open and National Championship - in 2004
At the African Weightlifting Championship in Tunisia in 2004, Matatiken won a silver medal (snatch) and two bronze medals (clean and jerk and Olympic total) in the 48-kg category.
Athlete Céline Laporte (third place finisher)
International competitions
Olympic Games 100m hurdles
Senior African Athletics Championship Bronze medallist in the heptathlon
Championnat de France Espoir Gold medallist in the heptathlon
France-based Céline Laporte finishes in third place a second time after taking the same position in the 2003 edition of the annual awards ceremony.
At the Senior African Athletics Championship in Congo-Brazaville, she won the heptathlon bronze medal.
At the Athens Olympic Games, Laporte competed in the 100m hurdles as an invitee
The heptathlete re-wrote the record books a number of times in 2004 over different distances and in field events. She got records in the 60m hurdles, 100m hurdles, long jump (indoor and outdoor), heptathlon and high jump.
Badminton player Juliette Ah-Wan (fourth place finisher)
National competitions
Curtain-raiser competition Ladies’ singles winner
Closing Cup Ladies’ singles, ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles winner
International competitions
African Badminton Championship Double bronze medallist in the team event and ladies’ doubles
For the second consecutive year, badminton player Juliette Ah-Wan, the Sporstlady of the Year recipient in 2000, has finished in fourth position.
Runner-up to Sportladies of the Year Sophia Vandagne in 1999 and Janet Thélermont in 2002, Ah-Wan, 23, won two bronze medals in the team event and ladies’ doubles of the African Badminton Championship in Mauritius in 2004.
Despite nursing a nagging knee injury in 2004, Ah-Wan, a three-time young female athlete of the year winner in 1997, 1998 and 1999, won the ladies’ singles of the Curtain-raiser competition and the ladies’ singles, ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles of the Closing Cup.
Volleyballer Jerina Bonne (fifth place finisher)
National competitions
League championship Winner with Anse Royale
SVF Shield Winner with Anse Royale
SVF Cup Runner-up with Anse Royale
International competitions
2003 edition of the IOCC Winner with Anse Royale. Voted Most Valuable Player and best server
2004 edition of the IOCC Runner-up with Anse Royale. Voted best attacker
Like in 2004, Sportslady of the Year 1997 Jerina Bonne finishes in fifth place.
Rapid attacker Bonne, 30, won the Indian Ocean Club Championship (IOCC) title with Anse Royale in Mauritius in March 2004. She was voted the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) and won the best server title. In December 2004, her team lost their title to ASPTT of Reunion in the final on home ground. Despite the defeat, Bonne won the best attacker title.
Locally, Bonne and Anse Royale won a record 10th League championship title and the SVF Shield.
Compiled by G. G.