Laird gets 100m backstroke gold medal and games’ record |07 August 2015

Seychelles has won four more medals – one gold, one silver and two bronze – in the Piscine du Chaudron on the second day of the swimming competition at the ninth Indian Ocean Island Games in Reunion.

Alexus Laird is proving to be the IOIG backstroke queen as she won gold in the 100 metre with a games’ record time of 1 minute 03.52 seconds (1:03.52), which is also a Seychelles national record.

Laird took an early lead again until the end followed by Ann Arseth of Reunion in 1:06.27 and Felicity Passon in third place with 1:06.40 for a bronze medal.

This was Laird’s second gold medal in the competition after also winning the 50m back on Wednesday.

“I am still very excited as the day before and I am very hopeful of getting more medals tomorrow (today) with three races left for me,” said a highly confident Laird.

Felicity Passon added another piece of silverware to her collection as she came out second in the 100 metre butterfly in 1:02.67 and it is also a Seychelles national record. The race was won by Emma Morel of Reunion in a games’ record time of 1:01.99. Elodie Poo Cheong was third in 1:03.86.

In the men’s 400 freestyle Steven Mangroo got a bronze medal with a time of 4:18.07. The event was won by Benoit Debast of Reunion in 3:54.97 followed in second place by Gilles Marquet of Mauritius.

Seychelles won another bronze medal in the men’s 4x100 free style relay. Steven Mangroo, Adrian Nanty, Dean Hoffman and Adam Viktora finished the race in a time of 3:40.03. This race was won by Mauritius in 3:28.23 and Reunion came out second in 3:29.10.

After 18 races over two days, Reunion leads with 15 gold medals followed by Seychelles with two gold and Mauritius with one gold. The swimming competition continues today.

Text and photos Patrick Joubert in Reunion