Letter to the Editor-Shrone’s results are in no way biased |25 April 2011

I have not re-instated my daughter Shrone Austin in the national team. Shrone sent an email to the SSA/coach Barnsley Albert informing the association about her current position in swimming, her wish to be selected for her country and to compete in the forthcoming World Swimming Championship (long course), IOIG 2011 and the All-Africa Games.

Shrone is mentioned to be out of swimming since May last year, so have other swimmers been out of swimming since the last IOIG in 2007 and there is no mention of this in the article. Yes, Shrone is training in France with a coach who was previously part of the Reunion coaching team at the IOIG in 2007 and he is no longer part of the Reunion coaching staff. The coach is training swimmers at the St Raphael Club.

You asked: “Why such preferential treatment?”  I would like to inform your readers that Shrone’s choice of coach was her decision as she felt this coach would best prepare her for the above-mentioned competitions.

Furthermore, I would like to inform your readers that we as a family have paid for Shrone's training camp in Spain, competitions she has taken part in and now that she is in France since January 2011. It was her wish to resume training with this coach since October last year, but we as a family could not meet her request due to financial shortages as we were funding the education and swimming training in South Africa of our youngest daughter – Shannon. Just to let your readers know how we as a family managed it by making immense sacrifices and we still do today to support her in France. Our family paid for Shrone’s airfares to France and I sold my annual leave to support her to re-start her swimming career and be best prepared for the above-mentioned competitions.

In the article it is stated that I have already selected Shrone for the forthcoming World Swimming Championship and coach Albert has not even named the swimmers.

I would like the writer to prove and please back his statement! I have only confirmed the Seychelles team numbers as per invitation from FINA for the World Swimming Championship (no names of swimmers are mentioned). This correspondence can be checked with FINA.

Please prove and back the statement regarding the Kenya training camp is on hold due to Shrone's saga.

With reference to the statement regarding the authorities should start looking at actual evidence on which they base their decisions rather than just wait for an individual to barge in with bias information favouring his own daughter, the information given to the NSTC is what Shrone has accomplished during her training in France since January 2011. These are results which can be obtained and scrutinised at any one time from the internet. Shrone’s results are in no way biased.

In her very first competition in France, Shrone swam the 800m freestyle in a time of 9:27.59 – the same time she swam the 800m in Madagascar (IOIG 2007) to won the gold medal. At her next competition, she swam a time of 9:12.12 which is a qualifying time on the National Sports Council’s High Level Programme. Please note that all swimmers and any other sportsman have the opportunity in reaching this programme.

Only two simmers have reached this level in recent years and they are Shrone and Shannon. These results are not favouring my own daughters. Their results speak for themselves and this is what matters!
Is this what you call bias?

The writer has made out to believe that I am biased towards our local swimmers. I can prove that this is defimitely not the case. Reference can be made to the problems encountered at the Commonwealth Games and how this matter was dealt with. And I never reverted to the press as I knew what negative impact this could have had on the young swimmers.

Shrone was previously on the High Level Programme. Yes she did not maintain the criteria and was removed from the programme. I wrote a letter to the NSC supporting the decision. Furthermore, Shrone was not fulfilling her training obligations prior to the World Swimming Championship in 2009. I was the one who insisted she does not go to the competition.

With reference to the statement – To make matters worse, coach Albert doesn't even know how Shrone's younger sister Shannon is doing in South Africa and yet she is part of the national team.

Yet, Shannon was with coach Barnsley at the Commonwealth Games in October and the World Short-course Swimming Championship in Dubai in December. Her monthly reports, performances and results are sent to the National Sports Council as she is on the High Level Programme and this is a pre-requisite. This information can be verified. Very little is known about other swimmers who are overseas and yet no mention or reference is made in the article.

The conclusion – This proves that Seychelles swimming belongs to the Austins who are being well backed – is just so incorrect and false.

I recommend that you take a close look at the funding allocated for IOIG preparation since the beginning of the year to the different swimmers compared to that allocated to Shrone and Shannon.

What my daughters have achieved has come from hard work and huge sacrifices. And in some cases not all the recognition was given.

We know that Shrone has her shortcomings and has hurt and let down a number of people, but we as a family are prepared to help her in anyway we can, and  we as a family are still trying to sort out numerous matters but we will not give up on helping her.

Such incorrect comments in the article have such a negative impact on sportsmen/women and it can change their outlook on sports and cause them to abandon their sports. I find it very unprofessional to get swimmers involved in this type of negative beliefs and publishing them does nothing for a team. I recommend that the paper spend time and effort to gear our swimmers to concentrate on doing the best for our country in the forthcoming IOIG in the spirit of ‘WINNING FOR SEYCHELLES’.

Thank you

Mervin Austin

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mr Austin’s reply to the article does not touch the real issue discussed. It was not about Shrone’s results. No one can take away from Shrone what she has achieved and we all know that if she trains hard she can win medals for Seychelles. The letter Shrone sent to the Seychelles Swimming Association dates April 13, 2011.

The issue discussed was about how decisions are taken without the Seychelles Swimming Association’s knowledge. Lately, Mr Austin has been taking many decisions on his own and this is what the article pointed out.  This is not right. Even officials from the sport’s ministry accepted during a meeting on Thursday that some things haven’t been done the right way.

We thank them for telling the truth and accepting their shortcomings. As they said, it is time now for all members of the swimming team to put these issues behind them and train hard to meet the qualifying times for the IOIG.

The article served as an eye-opener and it is best things have been dealt with three months before the Games rather than wait for things to get out of hands during the IOIG, thus hurting Seychelles’ medal chances.

We can all win for Seychelles if we persevere in what we do and abide by the rules. The first thing for us all to do is stop running away from the truth. No matter how fast we can run, the truth will always catch up with us.