Ninth All-Africa Games in Algiers-Table Tennis |19 July 2007

AFTER earning victory in their first match of the men's team event, the Seychelles team, made up of Godfrey Sultan, Garrry Elizabeth and Archille Dodin, went on to lose their other matches to finish eighth overall.

In their first match of the competition played at the Salle OMS de Rouiba in Algiers, the country's team edged Uganda 3-2, walked over both Congo and Madagascar before losing 0-3 to group winners South Africa.

Runners-up to South Africa in their group, Seychelles moved to the next round of the competition and lost to Mauritius (1-3), Benin (0-3) and Congo Brazaville (0-3).

The men's team event gold medal went to Egypt who needed five matches to edge Nigeria 3-2. Algeria and South Africa won the bronze medals.

In the women's team event, Seychelles lost all their five group matches against Egypt (0-3), Tunisia (0-3), Ethiopia (0-3), South Africa (1-3) and Ghana (1-3) for 12th place out of as many participating teams.

Nigeria whitewashed Egypt 3-0 in the final to win the gold medal, while the two bronze went to Algeria and Tunisia.

Seychelles' coach Peter Youpa said that "I'm quite satisfied with the results, but there is still room for improvement. We are losing matches we could have won just because we lack concentration and cannot finish off our plays in crunch time. They have to learn to play hard and hopefully they will improve in the individual competition."

With the team event having come to an end, the table tennis players are involved in the individual competition which started yesterday.

By Gerard Govinden in Algiers