Clementina Agricole, Steven Baccus top lifters of 2015 |14 January 2016

2015 was not a very good year for Seychelles weightlifting as some great international performances were overshadowed by the sport’s third doping scandal in its recent history.

Despite all these issues, as they say in the show business ‘the show must go on’ and so it has as Clementina Agricole has once again been named the top female lifter of the year alongside Steven Baccus who has bagged the male award.

Agricole won three gold medals at the Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) in August in Reunion where she managed a performance of 91kg in snatch and 115kg in clean & jerk for a total lift of 206kg in the 63kg category.

She also won one silver medal in clean & jerk  (115kg) and two bronze medals in snatch (91kg) and total lift (206kg) at the All-Africa Games held in Congo, Brazzaville.

At the World Weightlifting Championships in Houston, United States of America, sportswoman of the Year Agricole finished in 26th out of 36 lifters with a total of 191kg in the women’s 63kg weight class. She lifted 81kg in snatch at the third attempt and her best effort in clean-and-jerk was 110kg for a total of 191kg.

Locally, Agricole was the winner of the 63kg category at the Open Championship held at Bel Ombre with a performance of 88kg in snatch and 111kg in clean & jerk.

Meanwhile, IOIG triple gold medallist in the 75kg weight category, former Sportswoman of the Year Janet Georges is the runner-up for the award.

She was ranked fourth at the All-Africa Games in Congo, Brazzaville.

Steven Baccus returned to the scene last year to compete at the IOIG and a three-gold medal performance in the 94kg category in Reunion helped him earn the best male weightlifter title.

Former Sportsman of the Year Baccus also represented Seychelles at the All-Africa Games, where he finished in fourth place.

On the local scene, Baccus won the Open championship that was held at Bel Ombre in April.

The runner-up for the award is Rick Confiance.

At the IOIG in Reunion, he won three silver medals in the -62kg weight category after lifting 105kg in snatch and 130kg in clean & jerk for an Olympic total of 235kg.

He could only finish sixth in the men’s 62kg category with a total lift of 235kg (108kg in snatch and 127kg in clean & jerk) at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Pune, India.

S. N.