The Seychelles badminton contingent upon its arrival on Monday morning

THE five-member Seychelles badminton contingent returned home on Monday  morning (October 13), from participating in the Eighth All-Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria.

The Seychelles badminton team won three bronze medals at the ongoing eighth edition of the continent's biggest multi-sports event.

Met at the Seychelles International Airport, Pointe Larue, by National Sports Council (NSC) officials and parents, the players said that they were satisfied with their performance but decried the poor conditions in which they had to perform.

Seychelles, with only four players – Georgie Cupidon, Nicholas Jumaye, Shirley Etienne and Juliette Ah-Wan – finished third in the mixed team event competition for the bronze medal.

Drawn in group 2, the Seychelles foursome of Ah-Wan, Etienne, Cupidon and Jumaye finished second behind Nigeria after having collected two wins over Kenya (5-0) and Ethiopia (5-0). Their only loss in the group stage was to hosts Nigeria on a 1-4 score.

In the semifinals, Seychelles lost 0-5 to eventual gold medallists South Africa, while losing finalists Nigeria beat Mauritius in the other last-four encounter.

South Africa won the gold medal with a tight 3-2 victory over hosts Nigeria.

"We played well and deserved to win the bronze medal in the team event. Compared to other teams who had a minimum six players, we were handicapped with only four players and we grew tired as we had to play a lot of matches in very hot condition," said the country's number one male player Cupidon.

In the individual competition, 22-year-old Juliette Ah-Wan, defending African Championship women's singles gold medallist, defeated Mauritian Amrita Sawaram 2-1 in her first match before sweeping an Egyptian 2-0 to reach the semifinals where she lost  0-2 to South African Michelle Edwards.

The gold medal contest between South African Edwards and Nigerian Grace Daniel went in the favour of the later on a 2-1 score.

Although hampered by a recurring knee injury, Ah-Wan, winner of the mixed doubles gold medal together with Georgie Cupidon at the recent Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Mauritius, partnered Shirley Etienne in the women's doubles.

They beat an Ethiopian pair 2-0 and a Nigerian duo 2-0  before succumbing 0-2  to two South Africans in the semifinals.

"I am happy with my results. Winning three bronze medals at these Games is quite something. We were determined to do our best in our debut at the All-Africa Games and we've achieved our goal," said the former Sportslady of the Year.

It is to note that badminton was making its debut at the Games.

Regarding playing and living conditions in Nigeria, the badminton players said that it was chaotic as athletes had nothing to eat one day as the workers went on strike.

It was also difficult to reach the playing venue according to them and different delegations had to look for other means of transportation as the drivers had held the organising committee to ransom before they were paid.

There was also power outage.

A win and a loss for male volleyballers

Meanwhile, the volleyball competition started on Saturday October 11, after the drawing of lots the day before at the Nicon Hilton hotel.

The Seychelles men's team have been drawn in pool B along with All-Africa Games defending champions and African Nations' Cup bronze medallists Cameroon, Egypt, Botswana and Rwanda.

Coach James Camille's boys started the competition on a winning note on Saturday as Guilly Bijoux and Jean-Paul Ah-Kong were instrumental in the 3-1 (25-19 24-26 25-21 25-16) victory over struggling Rwanda.

In their second match on Sunday October 12, , Seychelles lost 0-3 (23-25 20-25 15-25) to gold medal favourites Egypt. The Egyptians, with wing spiker Hamdy Elsafy and blocker Mahmoud Hassona doing a good job at the net, beat Cameroon 3-1 the day before.

Men pool A comprises Algeria, Senegal, Ghana, South Africa and hosts Nigeria.

Algeria already have two wins to their name after beating South Africa 3-1 (25-20 21-25 25-19 25-22) and Senegal 3-0 (25-20 25-19 25-19).

Led by France-based professional Thomas Aroko, Nigeria won in straight sets 3-0 (25-18 25-14 25-15) against Senegal and beat Ghana 3-1 (25-21 22-25 25-21 25-23).

In the women's competition, Seychelles, who have been drawn in group A with hosts Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon, were to play the Cameroon side yesterday in their first match.

In the only group A match played so far, Nigeria beat Ghana 3-0 (25-20 25-19 25-18).

Group B comprises defending champions Kenya; Egypt, the champions of the recent African Nations' Cup; Algeria; South Africa and Mozambique.

The results of the group B matches are as follows: South Africa beat Mozambique 3-1 (25-21 25-20 15-25 25-20), Egypt beat Algeria 3-0 (27-25 25-21 25-22), Algeria beat Mozambique 3-0 (25-13 25-12 27-25) and Kenya beat South Africa 3-0 (25-19 25-13 25-13).

After the group stage which will run until Wednesday October 15, the top two men's and women's teams in each pool will make it to the semifinals on October 17.

The third place play-offs and finals have been scheduled for Saturday October 18, the day of the Games' closing ceremony.

In the boxing ring, Seychelles' last hopes of medals were dashed during the weekend after Alvin Gabriel and Ken Jean-Charles lost their quarterfinal bouts.

Gabriel, IOIG gold medallist in the -69-kg, lost on points, while Ken Jean-Charles could not repeat his -91-kg category IOIG gold medal win as coach Roland Raforme had to throw in the towel in the third round to spare him from more beating by Cameroonian Parfait Aimé Amougui Amougou.

G. G.