Swimming - Alexus Laird leads female medallists in the pool |06 August 2015

Alexus Laird won the first swimming gold medal for Seychelles in the 50m backstroke in a time of 29.48 seconds at the Piscine du Chaudron in Reunion yesterday afternoon.

Her time is a new games record and has also gone down as a new Seychelles best time as she improved the old national record of 29.50 seconds.

Quick of the blocks, the backstroke specialist took control of the race to finish first with Aina Estellah of Reunion finishing second in 31.05 seconds. Seychellois Felicity Passon was third with a time of 31.64 seconds for a bronze medal.

“I am very happy and very excited. I hope this gold medal will motivate everybody for more medals,” she said after receiving her gold medal. She also won a bronze medal in the 4x100 metres free style relay along with Leyla Rigamonti, Anisha Payet and Passon.

Seychelles also won a silver medal through Felicity Passon in the 200m free style in a time 2:08.15 beating her own time of 2:08.20. Alizée Morel of Reunion took first place in 2:04.29 with Romane Petit also from Reunion taking third place in 2:09.12.

“I am satisfied with my performance. It could have been better if my races were not back to back which left me a little bit tired. I could have done better in the 50m backstroke. I may not have won the gold medal but at least the silver. On the whole I am happy with my three medals,” said an excited Passon.

The male swimmers will have to wait for another day for their chance to win medals as they did not make it to the podium on the first day of the swimming competition yesterday.

Samuele Rossi did manage to break the 200m breaststroke Seychelles record with a time of 2:33.07. The previous record of 2:38.25 belonged to Fabien Antat and it had been around for 22 years.

With one gold, one silver and two bronze medals for Seychelles, coach Paul Franchette said he is satisfied with the performance although he feels Samuele could have won another bronze medal.

The swimming competition continues today.

Text and photos Patrick Joubert in Reunion