Swimming - Rossi, Laird take top honours |12 January 2017

Samuele Rossi and Alexus Laird are the 2016 best swimmers, with Rossi also taking the best young male swimmer title. Felicity Passon is the best young female swimmer.

Rossi was the revelation of the 2016 season and achieved a number of good performances locally.

He was part of the Seychelles team at the Confédération Africaine de natation zone 4 championship held in Mauritius, where the athletes managed to rack up 13 medals – 1 gold, 6 silver and 6 bronze – in the swimming pool. He won the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke.

Rossi also competed in the 13th Fina world short course championship in Windsor, Canada where he managed to establish three national records in the 50m breaststroke (30.48 seconds), 100m breaststroke (1:06.44) and 200m breaststroke (2:29.00).

Before moving to Thailand to train with the world renowned coach Colin Braund at the British International School, Phuket (BISP), Rossi was the star of the three-day National Open Swimming Championship, breaking three national breaststroke records – 50m (30.75 seconds), 100m (1:08.52) and 200m 2:32.60) – in the 50m pool at Roche Caïman.

Adam Viktora, who has always been among the top swimmers in the country, had to settle for second place this time.

Since her decision to compete for Seychelles, Alexus Laird has quickly established herself as the country’s top swimmer, especially in her specialty event – the backstroke.

Laird single-handedly brought Seychelles fourth place overall in the medals standings at the 12th African Swimming Championship in Bloemfontein, South Africa with four medals – one gold, one silver and two bronze.

Laird, who has only recently joined the South African club, Seagulls Swimming Club, took the women’s 50m backstroke gold medal in a time of 30.68 seconds and she was the only athlete under the 31-second mark. Her silver medal came in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1 minute 05.53 seconds (1:05.53). The backstroke specialist lost the 50m freestyle silver medal to Rowan El Badry of Egypt who got her hand to the wall just ahead of her with 27.02 seconds. She had to settle for third place with 27.03 seconds. Laird was third for the bronze medal in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:22.67.

At the 13th Fina world short course championship in Windsor, Canada, she improved the 200m backstroke record with a time of 2:17.71 in the 25m pool.

Felicity Passon finished behind Laird in second place, but also claimed the young female swimmer of the year title.

Passon managed to set a new personal best time as well as win a silver medal at the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) Winter Championships in England.

Swimming for the Plymouth Leander Team, her silver medal came with the help of her teammates as they managed to finish in second place in the 4x100m freestyle relay with a time of 3 minutes 38.92 seconds. They lost the gold medal to the Co Sheffield team who clocked 3:39:82.

Her personal best came with a time of 29.05 seconds in the 50m backstroke event to finish 22nd out of 60 swimmers.

Passon was Seychelles’ best swimmer at the 13th Fina world short course championship in Windsor, Canada by pulverising five national records – 50m freestyle (25.64 seconds), 50m butterfly (27.20 seconds), 100m butterfly (59.99 seconds), 200m freestyle (2:02.89) and 100m freestyle (55.38 seconds) – in the 25m pool. She also earned the highest Fina (Fédération internationale de natation) points on the Seychelles team with 781 points in her 100m freestyle event.

Passon also ended the year 2016 as the second best female swimmer in the 100m and 200m freestyle and the 50m and 100m butterfly in short course events in the Fina ranking on the African continent.

At the South Africa National Aquatics Championship in Durban, she won five medals, improved the 100m freestyle record twice and clocked one personal best time. Her best performance in the six events she took part in during seven days came in the 50m butterfly senior open category, clocking a time of 28.06 seconds to claim the silver medal.

In the elite category (19 years old and under), Passon won two gold medals in the 100m butterfly (1:01.74) and 50m butterfly (28.40 seconds), a silver medal in the 100m freestyle (57.89 seconds) and a bronze medal in the 50m freestyle (26.97 seconds).

She improved the 100m freestyle record twice. In the heat she clocked 57.89 seconds and rewrote the record books again in the semifinal with a best time of 57.63 seconds. The young swimmer managed a personal best time of 1:06.92 in the 100m backstroke heat.

S. N.