Athletics-Top female and male athletes rewarded |21 December 2011

Labiche and Woodcock were honoured on Sunday at the Golden Plates Restaurant as the Seychelles Athletics Federation (SAF) had gathered the athletics family to share the joy of those chosen as the best and at the same time spend some light moments together at the end of a busy 2011 season.

While Labiche, who got out of Lindy Leveau-Agricole’s shadow last year, has won the female athlete of the year title for the second consecutive year, male high jumper Woodcock has made it three title wins in a row, bringing his number of triumphs to four after a first win in 2007.

Labiche was a double gold medallist at the 8th Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG), winning the high jump event with a new Seychelles record performance of 1.82m and the heptathlon with 4,822points. She was a silver medallist in the long jump with a Seychelles junior record effort of 6.10m and a bronze medallist with the women’s 4x100m relay team alongside Alice Khan, Janet Boniface and Joanne Lou Toy in a new record time of 47.75 seconds.

With the 1.82m (high jump) and 6.10m (long jump) performances, Labiche has qualified for the 2012 World Junior Athletics Championships in Barcelona Spain and the 18th African Senior Athletics Championships in Port Novo, Benin in 2012.
The 18-year-old also fetched Seychelles a bronze medal in the high jump event of the 10th All-Africa Games on a count-back after three jumpers finished with 1.80m inside the Estadio Nacional do Zimpeto.

At the Kenya National Athletics Championships at the Nyayo Stadium, in Nairobi, Labiche claimed two gold medals in the women’s high jump (1.75m) and long jump (6m).

Labiche’s medals – a silver and a bronze – propelled Seychelles to 18th out of 25 countries in the final medal standings at the 10th African Junior Athletics Championship at the UB Stadium in Gaborone, Botswana. She won her silver medal in the high jump with a height of 1.70m and finished third overall in the heptathlon to win the bronze medal with a total of 4,663 points.

Labiche, who first improved the Seychelles high jump record to 1.81m during the National Championships and won the 100m hurdles, 200m, and 60m hurdles of the Special Events meets, also won the high jump gold at the Mauritius International Meet.
Male high jumper Woodcock cleared the bar at a height of 2.15m to win the IOIG gold medal and again finished on the medals’ podium with a bronze at the 10th All-Africa Games.

Co-holder of the Seychelles record of 2.20m with Eugene Ernesta, Woodcock, who is ranked fourth in Africa, registered heights of 2.16m, 2.10m (twice) and 2.17m in four competitions in Germany and Belgium.

Jumps specialist Janet Boniface and sprinter Leeroy Henriette are the female and male runners-up in the senior category.

Triple jump silver medallist and long jump bronze medal winner at the 8th IOIG, Boniface hopped, stepped and jumped over a new distance of 12.95m for a new Seychelles women’s triple jump record and the gold medal at the Kenya National Athletics Championships at the Nyayo Stadium, in Nairobi.

Boniface collected three long jump and four triple jump wins in local meets.
Henriette smashed Neddy Marie’s 200m record with a performance of 21.42 seconds to finish second to Mauritian Fabrice Coiffic for the silver medal at the 8th IOIG.

He was also part of the men’s 4x100m relay team who won the silver medal in a new Seychelles record time of 40.79 seconds.
Henriette also teamed up with Jean-Yves Esparon, Nerry Luc and Neddy Marie to finish third in the 4x400m relay in 3 minutes 14.46 seconds.

Locally, he won the 200m event of the National Championship.
The young male and female athletes of the year titles have been won by Dean William and Marie-Helen Rose.

Rose was Seychelles’ only medallist with a silver in the javelin throw – a distance of 37.20m – at the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Southern Region Youth Championship reserved for under-18-year-olds and held at the Independence Stadium in Windhoek. The distance is a Seychelles youth record.

At the 10th African Junior Athletics Championship at the UB Stadium in Gaborone, Botswana, she was sixth in the javelin throw with 36.28m and eighth in the shot put with 10.85m.

She also had nine wins in shot put, javelin and discus events in local competitions.
Strongman William dominated all local competitions and although he could not notch a medal in two international meets, he made the Seychelles youth, junior and senior hammer record his with a performance of 40.45m at the 8th IOIG.

At the CAA Southern Region Youth Championship, he finished seventh in the shot put throw with a distance of 13.99m.

Cuban Carlos Sanchez Vizcaino has been chosen as this year’s best coach, Fabien Belle as the best official and Antoinette Esparon as the best volunteer.

G. G.