Seven local athletes get IOC scholarships |03 December 2010

Weightlifter Janet Georges, high jumpers William Woodcock and Lissa Labiche, canoeist Tony Lespoir, Laser sailor Rodney Govinden, badminton player Alisen Camille and swimmer Shane Mangroo have been honoured with what can be considered lifetime opportunities to help them qualify for the London Games.

Local sports federations and associations were asked to choose athletes who are highly likely to qualify for the Olympic Games so they could benefit from IOC scholarships.

A list of 18 names was given to the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga), who cut down the number to 13 before sending the shortlist to the IOC for final approval.

As usual, it was not easy for the seven scholarship recipients to be awarded these scholarships because they had to compete with athletes around the world for this opportunity.

Three of the seven athletes, who will shortly begin preparing for the 2012 Olympics on the IOC scholarship, signed their contracts at the Socga headquarters, Stad Linite, yesterday afternoon.

Those who have already signed their contract are Govinden, Lespoir and Camille. Athletes Labiche and Woodcock are to sign theirs after the Seychelles Athletics Federation (SAF) and Socga have agreed upon where they will train. As for Georges and Mangroo, they were absent at yesterday’s meeting.

Socga secretary general Alain Alcindor explained that the local Olympic body opted for local training because in the past many athletes failed to train consistently and some even left the international training centres as a result of misunderstandings.

Because the SAF wants its two high jumpers to train abroad, it has to discuss the issue further with Socga before the athletes sign their contracts.

The Olympic scholarship programme offers national Olympic committees the chance to get financial and technical help for a select number of elite athletes who are training and attempting to qualify for the London Games.

With the main aim of the programme being qualification for the 2012 Olympics, scholarship holders will receive a fixed travel subsidy of US $5,000 to cover a limited number of air tickets to take part in relevant Olympic qualification competitions.

A monthly sum of $1,000 will go towards their training, and $120 will be taken off that sum to be given to them directly as an allowance.

Athletes who qualify and who are entered to compete in the London Olympic Games by their national Olympic committee will have their scholarships confirmed until August 31, 2012. Those who fail to qualify for the Games will have their scholarships withdrawn from the date of the final qualification opportunity. Qualification London starts next year.

All scholarships are renewable after a four-month period depending on the athletes’ performances.

An athlete’s Olympic scholarship could be terminated at any time in cases where there is non-qualification for the London Games, a decline of technical level, a medical reason including injury, a conflict of sporting ethics (discipline, doping etc) and any other reasons in mutual agreement with the national Olympic committee or in contravention of the Olympic Solidarity/national Olympic committee/athlete contract.

In the event of an athlete changing his or her nationality, he or she will lose the scholarship and Socga has to reimburse the Olympic Solidarity all the money spent on his or her preparation.

Socga president Antonio Gopal congratulated the seven athletes for getting the scholarships and urged them to work hard to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

“You have the potential to qualify for London and you can do it,” he said.

National Sports Council Federations management and development division director Robert Auguste also attended yesterday’s meeting together with sports federations whose athletes have received scholarships.

G. G.