Southern Region Athletics Youth Championships-Labiche silver medallist, Prudence wins bronze |20 May 2008
Labiche was making only her second international outing after winning the high jump gold medal with a bar of 1.63 metres at the first Coupe de l’Océan Indien in Réunion on Saturday April 12.
She equalled her girls (under-16) and youth (under-18) records of 1.70m but settled for the silver medal, although South African gold medallist Chaney Lindner registered the same height. Another South African – Michelle Pretorius – finished third with 1.60m.
In the male 2,000m steeplechase final contested by only three athletes, Prudence stopped
Four other Seychellois athletes were in action at the championships.
Joanne Low-Toy finished fifth out of seven in the female 100m final with 12.82 seconds. Melissa Hewitt (12.13 seconds), Arlene Gowar (12.18 seconds) and Merlyn Diamond (12.27 seconds) finished first, second and third respectively.
Yannick Vidot clocked 11.46 seconds to finish eighth of as many finalists in the blue-riband 100m race.
The medallists in this race were Wade Joseph (10.65 seconds), Themba Mingibisa (10.68 seconds) and Jesse Uri-Knob (10.81 seconds).
Stephanie Augustin was faster than three opponents in the female 400m final with a time of 1:01.39, more than six seconds slower than gold medallist Justine Palframan (55.25 seconds). Second and third were Golebaone Boseken (56.71 seconds) and Sonja Van Der Merwe (56.76 seconds).
Leeroy Henriette did not make the male 400m final after clocking 52.47 seconds in the second of the three heats.
Thapelo Ketlogetse was the gold medallist with 47.62 seconds, followed in second and third places by Senzo Blose (48.00 seconds) and Dean Swart (48.49 seconds).
Like Henriette, Begitta Sillah failed to progress to the final in the female 100m after clocking 13.05 seconds in the first heat.
In the medley relay, the Seychelles female team of Sillah, Labiche, Khan and Augustin finished just outside the medal ranking – fourth – with a time of 2:24.99.
With 2:15.92, the South Africa team finished first ahead of Botswana (2:17.39) and Namibia (2:19.89).
In the medley relay, the runners ran legs of 100m, 200m, 300m and 400m.
Accompanied by coach Joseph Adam and team manager Antoinette Esparon, the six athletes are expected back this coming Thursday.
G. G.