Senior African Swimming Championship-Shrone Austin Seychelles’ African queen |18 September 2006

She earned Seychelles’ historic gold medal in the Senior African Swimming Championship in Dakar, Senegal, on day four Friday of the continental competition. And the Sportslady of the Year 2003’s triumph came in the longest race in an Olympic size pool in any swimming competition – the 1,500m freestyle.

Austin touched the pad in a fast time of 17 minutes 07.28 seconds (17:07.28), slicing 22.99 seconds off her previous Seychelles record of 17:30.27 set during the Eighth All-Africa Games in 2003 for a silver medal win.

Austin completely scorched the rest of the field after taking the lead just before the half-way stage of the race. Her split times were: 1:04.75 (100m) - 2:12.57 (200m) - 3:20.87 (300m) - 4:29.04 (400m) - 5:37.08 (500m) - 6:45.89 (600m) - 7:54.93 (700m) - 9:03.23 (800m) - 10:11.60 (900m) - 11:20.29 (1,000m) - 12:29.44 (1,100m) - 13:38.59 (1,200m) - 14:48.29 (1,300m) - 15:58.24 (1,400m) – 17:07.28 (1,500m).

Her closest competitor proved to be Tunisia's Maroua Mathlouthi, who touched second in 17:27.32 and South African Nathalie Du Toit rounded out the top three with a 17:49.42.

Still excited after her gold medal win, Austin plunged into the pool the following day (Saturday) to win a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle. Her time of 4:26.21 was outside her record of 4:25.86 clocked at the Junior African Championship in Mauritius in 2005.

This was her third bronze medal of the championship after also producing a silver medal performance in the 800m freestyle with a clocking of 9:04.09.

She won the other two bronze medals in the 200m freestyle (in a new national record time of 2:07.60) and 400m Individual Medley (5:09.15).

The 400m freestyle gold and silver medals went to South Africans Leone Voster (4:17.44) and Nathalie Du Toit (4:24.83).

The 17-year-old concluded the championship with a fifth-place finish in the 200m Individual Medley (IM) with a time of 2:27.73, beating her old Seychelles record of 2:28.83 set at the Sasol Winter Championship in South Africa last year.

The 200m IM was won by South African Tamaryn Laubscher in 2:21.76. Tunisian Mariua Mathlouti (2:22.85) and South African Tanya Bouffe (2:23.91) were second and third respectively.

Taking into account all what she won in Senegal, it could be said that Austin lived up to expectation as Swimming South Africa’s competitions manager, Daphne Bird, had anticipated before the start of the championship that her women’s team’s “chief rivals could be Seychelles and Zimbabwe.”

Accompanied by coach Simon Gray, Austin did not compete in yesterday’s open water swim and has flown straight to South Africa to resume training and her studies.

Although Austin could not be reached for comments, Mervin Austin said that she spoke to her daughter on the phone after her gold-medal win and this is what she said:
“I can’t believe what I have achieved. I felt good in the water during the 1,500m freestyle final. It will take a while before this really sinks in and I couldn’t sleep well on Friday night.

But I’m proud of myself and to hear the Seychelles national anthem being played during the medals presentation ceremony.”

Shrone Austin’s performance
1,500m freestyle – gold medal in 17:07.28 (Seychelles record)
800m freestyle – silver medal in 9:04.09.
400m freestyle – bronze medal in 4:26.21
200m freestyle – bronze medal in 2:07.60 (Seychelles record)
400m Individual Medley – bronze medal in 5:09.15
200m Individual Medley - fifth in 2:27.73 (Seychelles record)

G. G.