XVIII Commonwealth Games-Team Seychelles officially welcomed in Games Village |15 March 2006

Chosen as flag-bearer, female javelin specialist and reigning Sportslady of the Year Lindy Leveau-Agricole will lead Team Seychelles inside the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be among the many high profile guests at the opening ceremony of the second-biggest multi-sports competition after the Olympic Games involving 71 Commonwealth nations.
 
Andrew Walsh, Creative Director of the Games opening ceremony, told members of the media yesterday that the ceremony will give the impression of Melbourne's creativity and vibrancy, in a creative and vibrant nation.

"If (the ceremony) is not that, it will be an also-ran, and Melbourne is not that sort of place," he said.

In Melbourne as an invitee, Seychelles National Olympic Committee (Snoc) secretary general Alain Alcindor told Sports Nation in a telephone conversation yesterday that the “Team Seychelles are getting along fine.”

France-based long jumper Céline Laporte and swimmer Shrone Austin who has been training and studying in South Africa, joined the team in Melbourne yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Queen's Baton relay made its way through the Athletes' Village yesterday and it will finish its epic 180,000-km journey across the 71 Commonwealth nations at today’s spectacular Games opening ceremony.

The 90-cm, 1.5-kg Baton has been carried on an epic journey across continents and oceans, from Buckingham Palace to the opening ceremony, and carries Her Majesty's message on a computer memory chip.

It must be noted that the Queen’s Baton relayed in Seychelles from June 4 to 9 last year.

G. G.