11th All-Africa Games - Laird wins bronze for Seychelles |08 September 2015

Three-time gold medallist at the ninth Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) in Reunion, Alexus Laird is the bronze medal winner for Seychelles at the ongoing All-Africa Games.

The All-Africa Games are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and as such returned to their first host nation, Congo Brazzaville, where the games were first held in 1965. This year’s games have attracted 54 nations from all over the continent to compete in 24 events.

Laird is the only swimmer representing Seychelles at the Games and on Sunday she won the 50m backstroke bronze medal with a time of 30.07 seconds. It was an encouraging performance for the swimmer who took the Indian Ocean by storm during the IOIG and now is being able to prove herself among the best in Africa, in her favourite swimming event.

The gold medal was won by South Africa’s Jessica Cooper in a time of 29.05 seconds, while the silver medal went to Naomi Ruele of Botswana who finished the race in 29.70 seconds.

This is Seychelles’ second medal at the games so far as on Saturday the badminton team of Juliette Ah-Wan, Cynthia Course, Alisen Camille, Steve Malcouzane, Georgie Cupidon and Kervin Ghislain finished third after losing at the semifinal stage against South Africa who settled for the silver medal following their 2-3 loss to Mauritius.

This is Seychelles’ eighth appearance at the All-Africa Games, having debuted in the 1987 games in Nairobi, Kenya, where two bronze medals were what we achieved.

At the previous All-Africa Games in 2011 in Mozambique, Seychelles finished 19th on the medals table with 11 medals – one gold, two silver and eight bronze. Seychelles’ only gold medal was won by sailor Allan Julie in the Laser Standard class, with the two silver medals coming from the badminton duo of Georgie Cupidon and Alisen Camille (mixed doubles) and the pairing of Camille and Cynthia Course (women’s doubles).

The bronze medallists were Georgie Cupidon and Steve Malcouzane (badminton men’s doubles), Georgie Cupidon, Steve Malcouzane, Kervin Ghislain, Alisen Camille, Cynthia Course and Danielle Jupiter (mixed team event), Rodney Govinden (Laser standard), Shrone Austin (swimming 800m and 1,500m), Lissa Labiche (women’s high jump), Lindy Leveau-Agricole (women’s javelin) and William Woodcock (men’s high jump).

The country’s medal haul of two gold, three silver and six bronze in Algiers, Algeria in 2007 remains its best to date and our athletes will be hoping to better this performance in Congo, Brazzaville and put themselves down in history.

The gold medallists in Algiers were sailor Meggy Gertrude in the Laser 4.7 class and the badminton mixed doubles pair of Juliette Ah-Wan and Georgie Cupidon.

S. N.