Boxing - Seychelles’ newest Olympian Allisop remains fearless as he looks to the future |22 March 2016

Boxer Andrique Allisop, the latest Seychellois athlete to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics, returned to the country yesterday afternoon and he is already focused on Brazil.

Allisop qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after he convincingly beat Tunisian Shili Alaa 3-0 on Saturday at the International Boxing Association (Aiba) African Continental Olympic qualifying event in Yaoundé, Cameroon. He joins Egyptian gold medallist Abdelaal Mahmoud and Algerian silver medallist Reda Benbaziz on the plane to Rio.

He had to fight four times inside the ring to achieve qualification. He earned a bye to appear directly in the round of 16 where he defeated Central African Republic’s Demosthene Roguea 3-0 to face Mefsin Keralah of Ethiopia in the quarter final. Here Allisop won on a 3-0 score again to seal a semifinal berth. In the semis, Allisop faced number one seed Reda Benbaziz where he lost 0-3 and thus had to fight for the bronze medal, which he came away with by beating Tunisian Shili Alaa 3-0.

“I feel very proud and I am sure anybody would feel this way if they have qualified for the Olympics,” said Allisop yesterday afternoon upon his arrival at the Seychelles International Airport where he was greeted by the president of the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga), Antonio Gopal, the director for sports development and management at the National Sports Council (NSC) Robert Auguste and the secretary general/treasurer of the Seychelles Boxing Federation, Edmond Folette.

“I trained hard and made a lot of sacrifices and today I am back with a medal, so I am happy,” he added.

Allisop described the competition as “a very high level” adding that “the level of organisation was great”.

He described his fights as “very highly contested” and despite losing in the semifinal, he feels that at the end of the day it’s boxing and someone has to win and the other has to lose.

As Allisop looks towards the Olympic Games, he says his focus will now be fully on training and preparing for the world’s biggest mixed sports event and is not afraid of the fact that he will also be competing against professional boxers in Rio.

In his own words: “I’m not taking it as a big deal as just like them I have also qualified and now I will be training to produce the best performance I can.”

The former Sportsman of the Year was joined on his arrival by Keddy Agnes, who lost by a technical knockout-injury in the first round against Nigerian Efe Ajagba in just 1 minute 46 seconds of the +91kg category.

Jovet Jean, on the other hand, has had his tournament blighted by an old shoulder injury which has resurfaced. He was taken to hospital in an ambulance to get X-rays for his shoulder after his win on a 3-0 score against Cape Verde's Lopes Borges on day one and did not take the ring for his next bout due to the injury.

S. N.