Sports Review 2008-Seychelles sports trumpet youth triumphs |31 December 2008
Seychelles has a proud tradition of playing and supporting sport and in this review of the year in sport we take a brief look back at how Seychellois sportsmen and women fared over the year.
Some of the dishes that were on the Seychelles sporting diet in 2008 are the sixth Jeux de la Commission de la Jeunesse et des Sports de l’Océan indien (CJSOI), the 29th Olympiad in Beijing, China, and the Indian Ocean Volleyball Club Championship.
CJSOI Games unite Seychellois people
We start with the CJSOI Games where young athletes like Anniessa Benstrong, Lissa Labiche, Marielle Bonne, Joel Dubel and Brad Uzice, to name a few, made their peers proud and united the people of Seychelles.
In table tennis, Benstrong lived up to expectations with a 4-1 (11-9, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8, 12-10) victory in the ladies’ singles final against Mauritian Widaad Gukhool.
After extending her domination in local competitions, Benstrong travelled to Reunion earlier this month to defend her Zone 7 ladies’ singles title and joined forces with Godfrey Sultan to capture the mixed doubles gold medal.
The 15-year-old, who now holds the girls (under 16 years), youth (under 18), junior (under 20) and senior (over 20) records, was ecstatic after her triumph.
She said: « C’est incroyable ce que j’ai accompli. C’est mon heure de gloire et j’essaie de l’apprécier au maximum. C’est pour moi une fierté de défendre les couleurs des Seychelles. Et je rêve de remporter un jour une médaille d’or aux Jeux Olympiques. Je sais que pour cela, je dois beaucoup m’entraîner. C’est ce que je vais donc faire et je serais très heureuse d’avoir un jour la chance d’aller m’entraîner à l’étranger et de participer à beaucoup de compétitions.»
The other eight Seychellois track and field gold medallists at the Games were Andrew Barbé 
In fact, Seychelles won a record 14 gold medals at the CJSOI Games. The other four came in volleyball (one) and badminton (three).
Comprising captain Kervin Ghislain, Joel Dubel, Richie Course, Christian Toussaint, Aaron Vidot, Alisen Camille, Patricia Course, Alexina Larue, Ginnie Bibi and Chlorie Cadeau, Seychelles won the badminton team event gold medal. Dubel teamed up with Ghislain to capture the boys’ doubles gold medal and then joined forces with Camille to celebrate victory in the mixed doubles.
Skippered by Marielle Bonne, the ladies’ team, who also comprised Belstania Sofola, Lormina Constance, Annarita Adelaide, Flora Lesperance, Nathifa Soomery, Samura Cedras, Mandy Hoareau, Valerie Toussaint, Marie-Helen Rose, Hillary Nourrice and Vanessa Payet, needed 81 minutes to earn a comeback 3-1 (19-25, 25-11, 25-13, 25-19) victory against Reunion in the final played inside a packed Palais des Sports. The ladies’ volleyball team’s gold medal win was the first for Seychelles in collective sports in the history of the Games.
Seychelles also won 12 silver and 18 bronze medals at the Games.
MVP Bonne leads six-time IOCC winners Arsu
Speaking of Marielle Bonne, she annihilated the rest of the field of senior players to be voted the Most Valuable Player of the IOCC. Her club team Arsu, who claimed another league and cup double in domestic competitions, won the IOCC crown a record sixth time with a 3-1 (18-25, 25-16, 25-17, 25-13) victory over Reunion outfit ASPTT. Cascade finished third.
Lost for words, the17-year-old hard-hitter said: « J’ai été surprise d’entendre mon nom. J’ai eu du mal à croire que c’était bien moi. Pour être franche, je voulais remporter le titre de meilleure attaquante comme en 2006. Mais c’est ma mère (NDLR : Jerina Bonne) qui l’a eu cette fois-ci. Le titre de MVP marque une autre étape dans ma jeune carrière. Même si je souffre de l’épaule, j’ai beaucoup participé au succès de mon équipe. Je suis fière de moi-même et je m’en félicite. Ça va prendre quelques jours avant que je commence à digérer cet exploit. »
Certain that the men’s IOCC title will stay in Seychelles, Beau Vallon put behind them their poor form in local competitions to beat league champions Premium Spikers 3-1 (25-21, 25-19, 16-25, 30-28) in an all-Seychelles final. It was Beau Vallon’s fifth triumph in the annual tournament.
Other players to receive individual awards were Beau Vallon’s Perrin Sophola (best libero), Cascade’s Nathalie Agnes (best server), Beau Vallon’s Kishnan Chetty (best defender), Arsu’s Teryl Songoire (best receptionist), Premium Spikers’ Jude Frederick (best blocker), Arsu’s Marille Benoit (best setter), Beau Vallon’s Hank Panagary (best setter) and Arsu’s Jerina Bonne (best attacker).
Didon etched into Beijing Olympics history
We now move to Beijing for the 29th Olympiad – one of the major international events in which Seychelles is yet to win a medal.
Seychelles was represented by nine athletes, among them swimmer Dwayne Didon, who clocked a personal best 28.95 seconds in the 50m freestyle to be ranked 85th out of 97 swimmers in 13 heats.
While he may not have been among the medal winners in Beijing’s National Aquatic Centre, nicknamed the Water Cube where American Michael Phelps won a record-breaking eight gold medals, Didon will be etched into history as the youngest male competitor at 13 years old at the 29th Olympiad.
An article written by Lou Chen and published on Sunday August 17 said the Olympics were Didon’s gold medal.
“It’s a dream coming true. Every day I dreamed of coming to the Olympics,” Didon was quoted as saying.
The other eight Seychellois athletes who competed in Beijing were female javelin thrower Lindy Leveau-Agricole (56.32m in her first trial to finish 29th overall out of 54 competitors), sprinter Danny D’Souza (11.00 seconds in the 100m to finish 65th overall out of 80 sprinters), badminton players Juliette Ah-Wan and Georgie Cupidon (lost first match in mixed doubles), canoeist Tony Lespoir (new record time of 4:05.890 in the K1 1,000m to finish 23rd out of 26 competitors, and then clocked 1:53.248 in the K1 500m to be ranked 27th out of 29 contestants in four heats), Laser sailor Allan Julie (32nd overall in the 43-sailor Laser fleet with 203 points), weightlifter Terrence Dixie (Olympic total of 255kg – 115 kg in snatch in his third attempt and 140kg in clean-and-jerk in his third attempt – to be ranked 16th and last in the 85kg division) and swimmer Shrone Austin (4:35.86 in the 400m freestyle).
Five of the nine – a record for Seychelles – qualified for Beijing.
This was Seychelles’ seventh time at the Games after making its debut in Moscow, Russia, in 1980. The country did not compete in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988.
Maillet reaches milestone
One of Africa’s top football referees, Eddie Maillet reached a milestone in his career by taking charge of three matches, among them the opening match between hosts Ghana and Guinea, and the semifinal between Egypt and Ivory Coast, at the 26th African Nations Cup. He was also the fourth official in the final between Egypt and Cameroon.
Said Maillet in an interview with Sports Nation upon his return: « Vous vous souvenez qu’avant de partir pour la CAN je vous avais dit dans une interview que j’avais pour objectif de prendre en charge soit un match de demi-finales ou le match de classement pour la troisième place. J’ai atteint cet objectif. Être choisi pour arbitrer le match d’ouverture entre le pays organisateur, le Ghana et la Guinée a été pour moi une agréable surprise. Cela prouve que les responsables du corps arbitral en Afrique ont confiance en mes qualités d’arbitre. Normalement, l’arbitre du match d’ouverture donne le ton à la compétition et dicte le niveau d’arbitrage. »
In domestic football, St Michel completed back-to-back league and cup doubles and more importantly, made a clean sweep of all the titles on offer this season – Triangular tournament, President’s Cup, Airtel Cup, Barclays League Division One championship and the Land Marine Cup.
Speaking of clean sweeps, Challengers achieved the feat in netball and Rybar in handball. Rybar’s captain Leona Zacek won the best scorer title of the Indian Ocean Club Championship held in Madagascar.
Karatekas perform well on African mainland
Local karatekas also gave good performances in two outings on the African mainland.
In August, Jude Gabriel was the best Seychellois karateka at the Combat Tang Soo Do and Haedong Kumdo South African Championship in South Africa, winning four medals – three gold in sparring, kata and in the overall ranking and a silver in Hadong Kumbo (traditional Korean sword art) in the below black belt senior division.
Jigme Tsultrim won two gold medals in sparring and kata and claimed a silver medal in weaponry in the under-15s green belt three stripes category.
Competing in the 13-year-old category, Johann Roucou won three silver medals in sparring, kata and weaponry.
Angelo Roucou, in the 10-12 category, won one gold medal in kata and two silver medals in sparring and weaponry. Travis Boniface, who also competed in the 10-12 category, won a gold medal in sparring and a silver in kata.
Andy Allisop won two bronze medals in kata and sparring in the 2nd and 3rd dan black belt category.
During the All African Tang Soo Do Karate Championship in Maputo, Mozambique, Seychelles clinched seven medals – four gold, two silver and one bronze.
Nella Victor won two gold medals in form with weapon and in form in the women’s category, while Chabel Servina captured his two golds in form and sparring. Competing in the male senior class, Servina also won a silver medal in form with weapon.
In the senior black belt division, Dan Simara finished second in form for the silver medal and Danny Emmanuel was third (bronze) in sparring.
An instructor at the Grand Anse Mahe dojo, Simara also clinched the instructor of the year 2008 award. He was also successful in his grading and is now a third dan black belt holder.
In judo, Seychelles won gold medals through Francis Labrosse (-66kg) and Dominique Dugasse (-100kg) in the first international tournament – Tisey – organised by the Seychelles Judo Federation in March at the Palais des Sports. Only Mauritian and Seychellois judokas competed.
The country’s male badminton pair of Georgie Cupidon and Steve Malcouzane won the Kenya International men’s doubles title with a 2-0 (21-11, 21-19) score against H. Patel and P. Ruto of Kenya in the final.
In distance running, Simon Labiche and Simone Jaffa dominated all nine Eco-healing races.
Labiche was also invited four times to compete in Reunion. The 38-year-old former soldier won the 10km Foulée de la Liberté and the 10km du Port. He was seventh in the marathon du Tram-Train and fifth in the 10km d’Odyssea.
Randolph Prudence won the 2,000m steeplechase bronze medal in 7:06.93 at the Southern Region Youth Athletics Championships held at the LC de Villiers Stadium of the University of Pretoria, in South Africa.
Seychelles’ only athletics lecturer since 1992, Joseph Volcy acquired the level two grade three certificate after following an International Association of Athletics Federations Level Two lecturers’ course.
Competent to lecture anywhere alone and with anyone, Seychellois coach and lecturer Volcy achieved the grade after taking part in a week-long course at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria, South Africa.
Giovanni Fanny also received his diploma in coaching from the same university after attending a two-week course.
In a league of his own, five-time Sportsman of the Year Allan Julie had no trouble winning all races of the National Laser Championship.
Away from home, he was 41st out of 54 sailors in the gold fleet of the World Laser sailing Championship in Australia, 21st out of 48 competitors in the gold fleet of the European Laser Senior Championship in Nieuwport, Belgium; sixth out of 39 sailors in the Barcelona Olympic Sailing Week 2008 competition sailed in Andora, Italy; fifth out of 78 competitors in the Laser Europa Cup sailed over the Riva Del Garda, Italy; and second in the Laser Europa Cup Standard, in Hyères, France.
Local bodybuilders Pierre Servina and Joelen Valentin finished on the medals podium in the masters category of Mr Africa 2008 in Mauritius. Servina, 43, won a silver medal in the 90-kg category, while 49-year-old Valentin, Seychelles’ first Mr Indian Ocean title winner in 1994, was ranked second in the open category for the silver medal and finished third in the 80-kg division.
G. G.