12th African Swimming Championship - Alexus Laird grabs 50m backstroke gold |25 October 2016

Alexus Laird single-handedly brought Seychelles fourth place overall in the medals standings at the end of the 12th African Swimming Championship with four medals – one gold, one silver and two bronze.
Laird returned yesterday along with coach Marcel and they were met upon arrival at the Seychelles International Airport by National Sports Council chief executive Giovanna Rousseau, Seychelles Swimming Association chairman David Vidot and Reunionnais coach Guillaume Bachman.

Organised by the Confédération Africaine de natation amateure (Cana), the championship took place in Bloemfontein, South Africa last week and ended on Sunday with swimmers from 22 countries competing.

Laird took the women’s 50m backstroke gold medal on day one by topping the final in a time of 30.68 secondsand she was the only athlete under the 31-second mark.

Algeria’s Amel Melih took the silver medal with a 31.08-second finish and Ingy Abouzaid of Egypt picked up a narrow third-place victory over South Africa’s Carissa van Rooyen. Abouzaid touched in a 31.72 seconds over van Rooyen’s 31.73 seconds.

Her silver medal came in the 100m backstroke on day three with a time of 1 minute 05.53 seconds (1:05.53). The race winner was South African Mariella Venter who delivered a top time of 1:02.44, while the bronze went to Egypt’s Ingy Abouzaid with 1:06.50.

The backstroke specialist’s bronze medals came on the fifth and sixth days of the championship.

She lost the 50m freestyle silver medal to Rowan El Badry of Egypt who got her hand to the wall just ahead of her with 27.02 seconds. She had to settle for third place with 27.03 seconds.

The gold medal went to Algeria’s Amel Melih who dashed to victory by delivering the only sub-27 second swim of the final, stopping the clock at 26.72 seconds.

On day six, Laird was third for the bronze medal in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:22.67.

Marielle Venter of South Africa posted the top time – 2:14.33 – for first place and fellow South African Nathania van Niekerk touched second with 2:15.49.

Speaking to Sports NATION, Laird said she feels proud of her achievement.

“I am very happy as I was by myself at the championship in South Africa. I did it without a team and I was happy to hear the Seychelles national anthem play,” said Laird.

Team South Africa finished as Africa’s top swimming nation by netting a total of 61 medals – 33 gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze. The total is 10 more than in Nairobi, Kenya in 2012.

The following is the final medals table:

Countries             Gold           Silver          Bronze                   Total

South Africa          33               16               12                      61

Algeria                 7                 7                 6                       20

Egypt                   3                20             18                        41

Seychelles             1                 1                 2                       4

Morocco               0                 0                 3                       3

Senegal                0                0                 1                        1

G. G.