10th CJSOI Games-Calvin Stravens wins high jump gold medal |04 August 2016

Calvin Stravens won Seychelles’ first gold medal at the ongoing Commission de la Jeunesse et des Sports de l’océan Indien (CJSOI) Games by leaping over the bar set at a height of 1.95m to claim the high jump gold medal.

This was yesterday, the first day of track and field athletics and Stravens achieved the feat ahead of athletes from Mauritius and Madagascar who both only managed 1.85m.

“I came here with this goal in mind, as well as to get a new personal best and I managed both. So I am very pleased,” said Stravens after his gold medal-winning performance.

Stravens has also called on other athletes to keep training hard so that they can also achieve such feats.

A further three medals were won by Seychelles in yesterday’s athletics event, with the first coming from Dora Samson, who claimed a bronze in long jump with a performance of 4.86m.

Another bronze was won by Stephano Bibi in the boys’ 400m event, finishing with a time of 50.28 seconds to climb onto third place on the podium.

A silver medal was what promising athlete Tessy Bristol ended up with despite having a great race in the 400m event, losing out to a Malagasy in only the final 40 metres of the race. Bristol finished with a time of 1:00.10 to win the silver medal for Seychelles.

“It was good race and upon hearing a lot about the Malagasy girl I knew she was strong and in the end she won even though I gave it my all,” said Bristol, who added that she is confident that she will win a gold medal for Seychelles.

Other Seychellois athletes who were in action yesterday were Meryle Rabat who finished fourth in the 1500m event, Shanita Marie who took fifth place in the 100m sprint, Janosh Monchery who was ranked fifth in the 100m sprint for boys and Kareen Laboudallon who was placed fifth in the shot put throw.

Meanwhile, the boys’ handball team have finished the competition in fifth place after defeating Mauritius 21-17 in the fifth place playoff match yesterday.

Seychellois sportsmen and women will be in action again today in track and field athletics, and in the table tennis singles event which has reached the knockout stage. The finals are scheduled for this afternoon.

Text and photos Sedrick Nicette in Madagascar