Swimming: Sacos-sponsored National Open Championship-Fast 50m freestyle times give Roberts and Banane individual titles |11 July 2005

Kenny Roberts and Angelique Banane sealed their best male and female titles respectively on the first day of the championship last Thursday after clocking good times in the 50m freestyle to score the highest number of points in their events on the Fina (Fédération internationale de natation Association) scoring table.

Roberts, a former Sportsman of the Year and three-time Olympian who is training in the United States of America (USA), clocked 25.85 seconds to amass 745 points, while Banane, surely an up-and-coming swimmer who can achieve great things with quality training, hit the touch pad in 32.12 seconds for 596 points.

Banane, 15, told Sports Nation that the race was hard with Liza (Mangroo) and Natasha (Tallipan) hot on her heels.

“I’m happy with my result. Now I’m aiming for a place on the Seychelles team for the African Junior Swimming Championship in Mauritius in mid-August. I know it will be tough to win a medal there but I will do my best to improve my times,” said Banane, who has been swimming for the past seven years.

Quite happy with their good results in the 50m freestyle, Roberts and Banane watched Adrian Nanty and Liza Mangroo achieve the most points for number of wins after the three days of competition.
Nanty collected 58 points after finishing first in the 100m freestyle in 52.51 seconds, 50m butterfly in 28.78 seconds and 200m individual medley in 2:28.28.

Second overall to Nanty was Claude Adeline with 52 points and he was followed in third place by Steven Mangroo with 47 points.

In the absence of Sportslady of the Year 2003 Shrone Austin, who, according to reports, is training and studying in South Africa, the ladies’ category was dominated by Liza Mangroo.

The young swimmer, who promises a lot, finished with 100 points after wins in the 200m freestyle in 2:44.71, 100m butterfly in 1:33.93, 400m freestyle in 5:27.49 and 50m butterfly in 39.79 seconds.

Banane settled for second place with 88 points and Natasha Tallipan was third with 62 points.

G. G.