Swimming Alexus Laird to train with coach Hill in South Africa |24 November 2016

Seychelles’ African swimming queen Alexus Laird is to join a South African club – Seagulls Swimming Club – in January next year.

Based in Durban, South Africa, the Seagulls Swimming Club has for coach Graham Hill under whom South Africa’s king of butterfly Chad Le Clos experienced an unbelievable amount of success including beating Michael Phelps in the final of the men’s 200m butterfly at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Under coach Hill, Le Clos earned gold medals in both the 100m and 200m butterfly at the 2013 World Championships, repeating his 100m butterfly performance at the 2015 World Championships.

And at this year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he made a name for himself in the 200m freestyle when he grabbed the silver medal with a time of 1:45.20, which now stands as a South African record.

Hill has been named South Africa’s ‘coach of the year’ on numerous occasions and has served on the South African coaching staff at the Summer Olympic Games since 2000.

Laird said she met coach Hill at the African Championship in Bloemfontein, South Africa where she grabbed the 12th African Swimming Championship 50m backstroke gold medal with a time of 30.68 seconds.

“I couldn't be more excited about this decision!” she wrote on her Facebook page.

“After the Olympic Games, I had reached out to him via email regarding my interests in swimming with his club, considering the number of Olympians and elite level athletes there,” said Laird.

The backstroke specialist will train with the club as a member but compete as a foreign athlete under the Seychelles name and during the 2017 season, she expects to take part in several competitions in South Africa, the Confédération Africaine de natation (Cana) zones competition and the World Championship.

“I chose to move to South Africa and train with Graham for several reasons. Related to swimming, his training methods are far different than what I have experienced in the past and he focuses on a lot of things I need to improve at,” Laird told Sports NATION.

She added that “coach Hill also has a group of elite athletes of my age and level in which I can train with. The club goes on training camps in Doha as well and travels to international competitions, so this will be good exposure for me. Moving to this club is also an advantage as the team members are focused on the same competitions as I am – Commonwealth Games, World Championships, and African Championships.”

Formerly based in the United States of America, Laird feels this will be a good move for her as she will be able to travel to and from Seychelles more freely and affordably, while being able to take part in more championships in Africa.

“My expectations swimming at this club will be to excel on my four-year plan and the goals I have laid out for myself. If I can work hard every day pushing myself towards my limits, and be supported 100% by the coaching staff, then I will know I had done everything to achieve my goals,” added Laird, who has two more competitions in which she will be taking part this year – the World Championship in Windsor, Canada, and the Reunion International Meet from December 28-30.

Other than the 50m backstroke gold, Laird grabbed three more medals – one silver (100m backstroke) and two bronze (50m freestyle and 200m backstroke) to
single-handedly give Seychelles fourth place overall in the medals standings at the 12th African Swimming Championship.

G. G.