Sports Awards of the Year 2017 - Labiche picks up third win, Sicobo gets maiden victory |23 January 2018
High jumper Lissa Labiche was last night crowned 2017 Sportswoman of the Year, an award she won previously in 2012 and 2015, while fellow track & field star sprinter Dylan Sicobo captured the Sportsman of the Year crown for the first time.
Many of Seychelles’ best athletes were present at the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay hotel yesterday for the annual awards show, and by night's end, some familiar names took centre stage as track & field athletics, karate and cycling produced the best of the best.
The Young Female Athlete of the Year is karateka Sophie Perolari who won a silver medal in the green belt category at the European Tang Soo Do Championship in Rotterdam, Netherlands in October 2017.
Runner-up to Perolari is sailor Jasmine Monthy while high jumper Natasha Chetty finished third.
Cyclist Stephen Belle, who made history last year by becoming the first Seychellois cyclist to win a gold medal in track cycling, is the Young Male Athlete of the Year, succeeding tennis player Damien Laporte who has finished third this time behind karateka David Boniface.
At the African Continental Track Championship held at the Cyril Geoghegan Velodrome in Durban, South Africa, Belle triumphed in the 200m junior men’s sprint race to claim the gold medal as he beat a South African in the final.
In the same competition, Belle, 17, won three bronze medals in the 10km junior men’s scratch race, in the team sprint and in the mixed team pursuit.
Belle also formed part of a six-member delegation who took part in the African Championship in Luxor, Egypt in February last year and he was ranked 10th overall and the best Indian Ocean cyclist in the road race. He also placed eighth in the individual time trial.
He also took part in the World Championship track race in Italy, World Championship road race in Norway and in international classical races in South Africa, Switzerland and France.
Sophie Perolari is the first karateka to win the Young Female Athlete of the Year crown, succeeding three-time winner Felicity Passon, while Stephen Belle is the second cyclist after four-time winner Hedson Mathieu to win the Young Male Athlete of the Year title. Mathieu’s triumphs came in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999.
Athletics double
Currently training in the United States of America, Lissa Labiche won the women’s high jump gold medal by clearing the bar at 1.91m at the Jeux de la Francophonie in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in 2017 to equalise the Games’ record.
Her season’s best of 1.91m is just 1 centimetre shy of her own personal best and national record of 1.92m established at the South African Open Championship in May 2015.
At the Southern Region Senior Athletics Championship in Harare, Zimbabwe, she claimed the gold medal with a bar of 1.80m.
As for sprinter Sicobo who is based at the IAAF High Performance Centre in Mauritius where he has former Mauritian great Stephan Buckland as coach, he won the 100m gold medal at the Jeux de la Francophonie in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Sicobo started the season with a personal best of 10.53 seconds and he later lowered Cyril Brioche’s 30-year-old 10.51 seconds record with a performance of 10.49 seconds.
The 20-year-old again improved his record to 10.38 seconds and at the Jeux de la Francophonie he pulverised his own 100m Seychelles record with a time of 10.33 seconds in the semifinal and matched the time in the final to reach the finish line first to clinch the gold medal ahead of Ivorian athlete Arthur Cissé Gué who ran in 10.34 seconds.
He then joined forces with Sharry Dodin, Ned Azemia and Leeroy Henriette to win the 4x100m relay bronze medal in a new Seychelles record of 40.31 seconds.
This is the second time in the history of the Sports Awards of the Year that the Seychelles Athletics Federation (SAF) produces the Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year, and it is also the fourth time the two best athletes come from the same sport.
The first time was in 1992 when the late Danny Beauchamp and Mirenda Francourt were crowned. Eleven years later (in 2003), weightlifters Steven Baccus and Janet Georges (formerly Thélermont) captured the coveted crown and in 2007 it was the turn of the Seychelles Badminton Association (SBA) to yield the best in Georgie Cupidon and Juliette Ah-Wan.
Weightlifter Janet Georges (formerly Thélermont) was again part of history in 2010 when she won the Sportswoman of the Year title a fourth time to equal athlete Lindy Leveau-Agricole as joint record holder. The Sportsman of the Year 2010 was Terrence Dixie.
It seems the rivalry between athletics and weightlifting will continue as Labiche, who picked up her third title, denied weightlifter Clementina Agricole a third win after she claimed the title two years in a row – in 2013 and 2014.
This is also the 10th time athletics has produced the Sportswoman of the Year. Besides Leveau-Agricole’s four wins in 1996, 2005, 2008 and 2009, Labiche’s three triumphs in 2012, 2005 and 2017, the other three winners are Mirenda Francourt (1992), Beryl Laramé (1993) and Helda Marie (2001).
Sicobo becomes only the third athlete after Paul Nioze in 1990 and Danny Beauchamp in 1992 to win the title.
Although Laser sailor Allan Julie has won the Sportsman of the Year title a record seven times and Rodney Govinden gave the Seychelles Yachting Association an eighth win in 2015, boxing holds the record of wins with 11 ‒ Ralph Labrosse (1985), Jerry Legras (1987, 1996 and 1997), Rival Cadeau, now Payet (1989, 1993, 1994 and 1995), Roland Raforme (1991), and Andrique Allisop (2012 and 2014).
Hall of Fame 2017
Young female Award: 1. Sophie Perolari (karate), 2. Jasmine Monthy (sailing), 3. Natasha Chetty (athletics)
Young male Award: 1. Stephen Belle (cycling), 2. David Boniface (karate), 3. Damien Laporte (tennis)
Senior female award: 1. Lissa Labiche (athletics), 2. Clementina Agricole (weightlifting), 3. Brenda Lozaique (weightlifting), 4. Mastura Shah Faure (karate), 5. Lindy Bédier (karate)
Senior male award: 1. Dylan Sicobo (athletics), 2. Sharry Dodin (athletics), 3. Christopher Gerry (cycling), 4. Xerxes Larue (cycling), 5. Steve Marie (karate)
G. G.