Seychelles swimmers out for more medals on final day |08 August 2015

The Seychelles swimming team have won five more medals – one gold, three silver and one bronze – on day three, yesterday, of the swimming competition of the ninth Indian Ocean Island Games taking place in Reunion.

The gold medal came from no other than Alexus Laird in the 200m backstroke with a games’ record of 2:20.79. Her time is also a Seychelles national record, beating the old time of 2:33.86 belonging to Felicity Passon. Second in the race was Romane Petit of Reunion in 2:26.85 and in third place was Manon Dijoux also from Reunion in 2:27.11.

This is Laird’s third gold medal so far.

Felicity Passon won two silver medals and one of those came in the fiercely contested 50m butterfly race which saw her coming shoulder to shoulder with Ann Arseth of Mauritius and both stopping the clock at 28.50 seconds.

First place in that race went to Emma Morel from Reunion in 28.04 seconds. Passon has also established a new Seychelles national record by beating her old time of 28.95 seconds.

In the 100m freestyle Passon won the silver medal in 58.33 seconds, with the gold medal going to Alizee Morel of Reunion in 56.33 seconds. The bronze was won by Ann Arseth from Mauritius in 58.79 seconds.

There was a third silver medal for the Seychelles female 4x200m freestyle team comprising Felicity Passon, Nicole Grasselli, Leyla Rigamonti and Alexus Laird in 8:54.10.The race was won by Reunion in 8:39.33 and third was Mauritius in 8:54.13

The bronze medal was won by the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team of Dean Hoffman, Adrian Nanty, Steven Mangroo and Adam Viktora who clocked 8:17.62.

The gold was won by Reunion in 7:41.74 and silver by Mauritius in 8:02.61.

Coach Paul Fanchette told Sports Nation that he is still very satisfied with the team’s performance as the hue of medals are getting better as the  competition progresses. Today (Saturday) is the last day of competition.

Text and photos Patrick Joubert in Reunion