Athletics - Azemia and Labiche claim top awards |09 January 2017
Ned Azemia and Lissa Labiche are the top male and female track & field athletes of the year 2016 with both athletes’ appearances at the 2016 Olympics Games being the highlight of the year.
Azemia, a 400m hurdles specialist, had a great year, where after winning two gold medals at the National Schools Athletics Championship for the Seychelles Institute of Technology (SIT), managed to shatter both the event’s junior and senior national records.
During the National Championships in July, he finished the race in a time of 51.09 seconds on the tracks of local athletics garden – Stad Popiler – to break the junior record of 51.80 seconds which belonged to himself as well as the 21-year-old senior record of 51.22 seconds set in 1995 by Stephan Banane.
He bettered both records at the Olympics. Competing in the men’s 400m hurdles heat 3, Azemia finished eighth with a time of 50.74 seconds, erasing his own national record of 51.09 seconds set on July 9 during the National Championship at Stad Popiler.
Azemia also took part in the World Junior Championships and managed to reach the semifinals of the 400m hurdles event, finishing third out of eight athletes, but his time was not good enough to reach the final.
Dylan Sicobo was the runner-up in this category. He set a new junior 100m sprint record last year as he finished the race at the Mauritius International Meet in a time of 10.53 seconds to slash 20 milliseconds off his own previous record of 10.73 seconds set in Nairobi, Kenya in 2015.
For the women, reigning Sportswoman of the Year Lissa Labiche is the top athlete once again, dominating the female high jump scene locally, winning all five tournaments she competed in.
Internationally, Labiche won gold at the African Championships in Durban, South Africa with a performance of 1.85m, while she also claimed various wins, including at the Meeting Amitié Dellingue in France and the Germany Inter Club International Meet.
Labiche also finished 10th at the World Indoor Championships with her best performance of the year of 1.89m, while she was ranked 29th at the Rio Olympic Games with a performance of 1.85m.
She is currently ranked 47th on the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) world rankings.
Shot put specialist Debra Servina is the runner-up for this title.
For the younger athletes, it is Anse Royale school’s new track revelation Tessy Bristol who has been named the top young female track and field athlete, with the young sprinter dominating locally, where she now holds the junior 200m record at 26.14 seconds.
Bristol also won the 200m gold medal at the CJSOI Games in Madagascar and also took a silver and a bronze medal at these same games.
For the boys, it is Kalvin Stravens who is the top young male athlete after he claimed some good performances in high jump locally including during the National Schools Championship to win a gold medal. He was also the high jump gold medallist at the CJSOI games.
S. N.