Ninth All-Africa Games-Volleyball |24 July 2007
Deprived of a place in Sunday's final by Cameroon who beat them 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-18) in exactly one hour of play, the players of coach Maurice Denys just could not get their acts together for the bronze medal match.
Annie Apassamy was Seychelles' top scorer with 13 points in a match the country's team lost 0-3 (14-25, 19-25, 13-25) after 54 minutes of play.
Speaking to Sports Nation after his team's match, coach Denys had this to say:
"Finishing fourth overall is not a bad result in itself. Now that we've established a benchmark, we must start looking at how best to prepare the team for the next edition of the Games. The level of volleyball in Africa has improved a lot and if I take for example the Algeria team who won the gold medal, they trained hard for four years. They had an objective and they invested in the team. If we (Seychelles) have the right players with the right physical abilities (height, strength and individual techniques), I'm sure we can win medals in four years' time."
Meanwhile, in the men's third place play-off match, Algeria edged Kenya 3-2 (26-24, 22-25, 23-25, 27-25, 15-13).
The women's gold medal was won by hosts Algeria with a 3-1 (25-17, 25-23, 16-25, 25-16) win over Cameroon, while Egypt took the men's gold by coming from a set down to beat Tunisia 3-1 (21-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-19).
As Seychellois athletes did not win any medal on Sunday - the last day local sportsmen and women were in action at the Games - Seychelles' final medals tally remains at 11 - two gold, three silver and six bronze - for 17th place overall.
A total of 36 out of the 50 participating countries have won medals in Algiers, Algeria.
Egypt is sure to finish at the top of the medals standings. It has 198 medals - 74 gold, 61 silver and 63 bronze. Host country Algeria has won 204 medals - 70 gold, 58 silver and 76 bronze. In third place is South Africa with 180 medals - 62 gold, 65 silver and 53 bronze.
It is to note that Seychelles' first ever gold medal was won by 17-year-old sailor Meggy Gertrude in the Laser 4.7 class on Thursday July 19. On the same day, the badminton mixed doubles pair of Juliette Ah-Wan and Georgie Cupidon grabbed Seychelles' second gold medal by winning the final 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) against Nigerians Grace Daniel and G. Okuongahe.