African Weightlifting Championship-Five lifters leave today for Uganda |21 July 2005

The delegation leaves this afternoon (Thursday), onboard Kenya Airways for Nairobi, Kenya, to catch another flight for Uganda.

Seychelles will be represented by three female and two male lifters, those being Janet Thélermont (69-kg), Clementina  Agricole (53-kg), Julie Matatiken (48-kg), Terrence Dixie (69-kg) and Charles Siméon (77-g).

Teenager Agricole will be going to Uganda with the aim of retaining the 53-kg junior category title she won in Tunisia last year.

Agricole, 16, won her three junior gold medals with performances of 65kg in snatch, 82.5kg in clean-and-jerk for an Olympic total of 147.5kg. Those same performances won her another three medals – two silver (snatch and Olympic total) and a bronze (in clean-and-jerk) – in the senior division.

Sportslady of the Year Thélermont's wish is to win the senior 69-kg category after coming close last year, heaving three medals – one gold (in clean-and-jerk) and two silver (in snatch and Olympic total).

Matatiken, 25, also won three medals – silver (in snatch) and two bronze (in clean-and-jerk and Olympic total) – in the 48-kg division in Tunisia last year.

It is to note that France-based Richard Scheer won a snatch gold medal in 85-kg category and former Sportsman of the Year Steven Baccus got two bronze medals in the clean-and-jerk and Olympic total of the 94-kg division in Tunisia.

Siméon, it is worth noting, won the junior 69-kg category with three gold medals and took second place among the seniors with two silver and one bronze medals during the same African Championship in Kenya in 2002. He was later stripped of all his medals after testing positive for a banned substance and automatically banned for two years by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).

That same year, Dixie, son of coach William Dixie, celebrated winning three gold medals in the junior 62-kg category in Kenya.

Coaches William Dixie and Reginald Estro will accompany the lifters, while Seychelles Weightlifting Association (SWA) chairperson Robert Rose will attend the IWF congress and officiate at the championship.            

G. G.