Athletics - Labiche African champion |28 June 2016

Seychelles high jumper Lissa Labiche is once again the high jump queen of Africa, but her hopes of reaching the Olympic hang in the balance as she failed to reach the qualifying performance at the African Senior Athletics Championships.

Labiche was one of three Seychellois athletes who took part in the championships in Durban, South Africa, last weekend and the reigning Sportswoman of the Year managed to regain her African high jump title she last won in 2012 by jumping to a height of 1.85m to clinch the gold medal.

It was not all joy however for Labiche as she needed to leap to at least 1.93m in order to reach the minimum Olympic Games qualifying height and thus her performance was not enough to secure her ticket to Rio, despite claiming gold at the championship.

Labiche must now await a wild card entry if she is chosen by the International Olympic Committee (ICO) in order to make her appearance at the games that will take place from August 5-21 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Her best career performance so far has been the Seychelles record of 1.92m which she accomplished in May last year at the South African Open Athletics Championship, but so far this year she has failed to improve on that height.

The other two athletes who took part in the championships were sprinters Joanne Loutoy and Dylan Sicobo.

Female sprinter Joanne Lou-Toy finished fifth in the heats of the women’s 100m sprint event with a time of 12.00 seconds.

As for Sicobo, he only managed a seventh place finish in the men’s 100m sprint heats event. His time was 10.89 seconds.

Team South Africa retained their title as the leading athletics nation on the continent, finishing top of the medals table for the second successive championship.

The 96-member squad earned a total of 33 medals, including 16 gold, nine silver and eight bronze at the five-day showpiece which came to a close in Durban on Sunday. This is the fifth victory for South Africa in seven editions of the biennial athletics fiesta.

Kenya finished second behind hosts South Africa in the medal standings with 24 medals -- eight gold, eight silver and eight bronze.

Nigeria had just four gold medals, five silver and seven bronze to show for her efforts and finished third

S. N.