Swimming: 2024 World Aquatics Championships – Doha, Qatar (February 2-18) |13 February 2024

The open-water swimmers with coach Suzette (Photo: Seychelles Aquatic Federation)

Pleasing results from young open-water swimmers

Given that open water swimming is fairly new locally, the performances of our young swimmers at the ongoing World Aquatics Championships 2024 in Doha, Qatar are very good, chairman of the Seychelles Aquatic Federation, Muriel Morgan has said.

Speaking to Sports NATION, Mrs Morgan said given the magnitude of the competition, alongside experienced swimmers from much bigger countries, our swimmers have shown that with more training and exposure they will bring better results back home in the future.

At the open-water events of the championships, Seychelles was being represented by Dorianne Bristol (open water - 5km), Damien Payet (open water - 5km), and Thierry Payet (open water - 5km).

In the 5km event, Damien Payet clocked 57 minutes 39.70 seconds (57:39.70) to finish 62nd overall, while his brother Thierry Payet was ranked 70th overall, clocking 1 hour, 1 minute 24.50 seconds (1h01:24.50).

In the same course for female swimmers, Bristol did not get an official time after finishing outside the given time limit.

It is worth noting that young Bristol was one of three athletes to miss the set time limit.

In the 50m butterfly, Adam Moncherry, who competed in heat number three of seven clocked 25.40 seconds to finish fifth, while yesterday in the 100m backstroke, Angelina Smythe clocked 1:10.37 to finish second in heat number one of six.

Both Moncherry and Smythe will be back in the pool, competing in the 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle respectively. Seychelles is also being represented at the championships by Aaliyah Palestrini (50m freestyle and 50m backstroke), and Simon Bachmann (200m individual medley and 200m butterfly).

The swimmers are under the guidance of coach Robert Suzette, while Mrs Morgan is flying over to Doha today to attend a meeting.

The World Aquatics Championships Doha 2024 represent the last chance for swimmers to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and they bring together around 2,600 elite athletes from 190 nations.

The 2024 World Aquatics Championships, the 21st challenge, were originally scheduled to be held in November 2023, but were postponed in response to the rescheduling of the 20th World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, from 2021 to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and then again to July 14-30, 2023 due to travel restrictions and safety measures in place in Japan.

It is the first time the championships are being staged in the Middle East.

Roland Duval