XIX Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India – October 3-14-Georges snatches silver medal |09 October 2010
The first Seychellois woman to win a medal at the Games – a bronze with a total lift of 205kg – in Melbourne, Australia in 2006, Georges climbed a step higher on the medals podium of the women’s 69kg weight category yesterday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex.
She edged Nigerian Itohan Ebireguesele (215kg) for the silver medal with a performance of 216kg (100kg in snatch and 116kg in clean & jerk).
Speaking to the Agence France Presse, police officer Georges said she could have done better.
"I went for 102kg in my third lift in the snatch. I usually lift that but today I failed. In clean and jerk also I did the same," she said.
Georges’ result matches the previous best result achieved by boxers Roland Raforme (heavyweight) and Gerry Legras (light welterweight) after Canadian fighters dashed their gold
Canadian Christine Girard set a new Games record to win the gold with her total of 235kg (105 in snatch and 130kg in clean & jerk), a performance that eclipsed the previous Games record of 229kg, set by fellow Canadian Jeane Lassen to win gold four years ago.
After stepping up from the 63kg in which she competed in 2002 and 2006, Girard said that when she won her first Commonwealth medal in 2006, she promised herself that she would win the gold one day.
"I went to Beijing for the Olympics and I decided after then to move up to the bigger category to work on my body and just see how it goes," she said.
"That was my last competition in the 69. I'll be going back down to the 63, so there's a big diet coming up for me soon."
Meanwhile, swimmer Shannon Austin is now Seychelles’ fastest female swimmer after making the country’s 50m freestyle record hers on Thursday with a time of 28.38 seconds that has gone down as a new record.
The previous best time of 28.58 seconds was held by her big sister Shrone Austin.
Yesterday, Shannon Austin clocked 4 minutes 36.43 seconds in the 400m freestyle, Ron Roucou got a personal best of 26.74 seconds in the 50m freestyle and Shane Mangroo stopped the clock at 25.68 seconds in the same event.
In table tennis, Christy Bristol lost 0-4 to a Nigerian and Janice Mellie lost by the same score against a New Zealander in the first round of the women’s singles event.
Last night, boxer Jovet Jean was expected in action against Pakistani Nisar Khan for a place in the middleweight (75kg) quarterfinal.
Jean booked his place into the second round with a 6-3 win over Sosefo Falekaono of Tonga in his first fight.
G. G.