Female weightlifter Julie Matatiken is welcomed by NSC officials

THE final two groups of the Seychelles contingents who participated in the Eighth All-Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria, returned home on Tuesday October 21,  on board two different Air Seychelles flights.

The athletes were welcomed at the Seychelles International Airport at Pointe Larue by officials of the Ministry of Local Government, Sports and Culture (MLGSC) and the National Sports Council (NSC). They were all presented with a bouquet of flowers.

Upon his arrival, male weightlifter Steven Baccus, winner of a silver medal in the snatch event of the 94-kg category with a best lift of 145kg, said that "despite winning a silver medal I'm not satisfied with how I performed."

Triple gold medallist at the Sixth Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Mauritius, 25-year-old  Baccus, who was making his third appearance at the All-Africa Games, failed all three attempts at 180kg in the clean and jerk event,.

It is to note that weightlifting brought Seychelles five silver medals and a bronze at these Games.

Triple silver medallist Janet Thélermont (100kg in snatch, 125kg in clean and jerk and 225kg in Olympic total of the 69-kg category) and Richard Scheer (silver medal in snatch with 150kg and bronze in Olympic total with 322.5kg in the 85-kg category) have travelled directly to Hyderabad, India, to take part in the first edition of the Afro-Asian Games.

I missed the silver medal by five seconds – Mathieu

Cyclist Hudson Mathieu, winner of a bronze medal in the 50-km individual time trial with a time of 54 minutes 56 seconds (54:56), told Sports Nation that the competition was tough.

"It was a tough competition and I missed the silver medal in the individual time trial by five seconds. I feel that I could have done much better but because the roads were dangerous, I didn't train a lot to avoid any mishap," said the 22-year-old, who was also the only Seychellois rider to finish the gruelling 153-km road race.

He was placed 18th with a time of 3 hours 44 minutes 36 seconds (3h44:36).

Of the three other Seychellois cyclists, only Jim Melanie had a placing in the 50-km individual time-trial, finishing in 18th position (1h00:29) out of 26 riders.

The gold medal of the 50-km individual time-trial was won by South Africa J. Marten in 54:46 and the silver went to Namibian Erik Hoffman in 54:51.

Another South African, Malcolm Lange, won the 153-km road race in 3h41:54, followed in second and third positions by compatriot Marten (3h43:15) and Algerian Karem Dali (3h43:40).

Michel Delorié, who accompanied the cyclists as coach, said that he was "satisfied with the performances of his riders but due to mechanical problems Melanie, Brian Sinon and Andrew Boniface could not complete the road race. We were also handicapped in the road race as we had only four riders when the other teams registered 10. As for the individual time trial where a country participated with its best two riders, both Mathieu and Melanie completed the distance."

My players played well – Camille

As for men's volleyball team coach James Camille, he said that his players played well to finish third in the five-team group B behind group winners Egypt and runners-up Cameroon, winners of the Seventh All-Africa Games gold medal and this year's African Nations' Cup bronze medallists.

In their four matches, Seychelles registered two wins over Rwanda 3-1 (25-19 24-26 25-21 25-16) and 3-0 (25-21 25-19 25-19) over Botswana and lost 0-3 (23-15 20-25 15-25) to Egypt and 0-3 (13-25 23-25 14-25) to Cameroon to finish with six points.

Egypt and Cameroon met in the final and the Egyptians, who beat the Cameroonians 3-1 in the group encounter, whitewashed the same opponents 3-0.

"My players did their best in a group boasting two good teams in Egypt and Cameroon. The level of competition was very high and we left a good impression of Seychelles volleyball there. I was also impressed with how Paul Rose took the setting role in his stride as Jude Preira could not play for most of the competition due to an illness," said Camille whose team did not play the fifth-place play-off encounter because they had to catch their flight back home.

We need to compete more often at continental level – Raforme

Boxing coach Roland Raforme, himself a winner of three bronze medals in four participations in the Games, explained to Sports Nation that he was impressed with the performance of his pugilists.

"Apart from Mellie (Jean-Paul), the other boxers were making their debut at these Games. They performed well and I am very satisfied with what I've seen. In general, I can say that African boxing has made a big improvement and we need to compete more often at continental level to continue progressing," explained Raforme.

Of the five Seychellois boxers who went into the ring in Abuja, only Alvin Gabriel, gold medallist in the 69-kg of the Sixth IOIG, won a bout.

He beat an opponent from the Democratic Republic of Congo 22-11 before losing 8-13 to a Tunisian who went on to win the silver medal of the 69-kg category.

Jovet Jean, also IOIG gold medallist in the 75-kg category, lost 8-13 to a Malian, Jonasson Molle was defeated 10-13 by a Ghanaian in the 57-kg category, Ken Jean-Charles, IOIG gold medal winner in the 91-kg category, was stopped from taking more punishment by coach Raforme who threw in the towel in the third round and Jean-Paul Mellie was outclassed by eventual 60-kg category gold medallist, Nigerian Ahmed Sadiq.

Also on the two flights home yesterday were athletes and judokas.

On the mat, both Gerard Baker (78-kg) and Francis Labrosse (60-kg) lost their first fights.

In the 200-metre race, Evans Marie clocked 22.50 seconds in his heat, while 3,000-metre steeple chase specialist Ronny Marie finished last in his race.

As for heptathlete Céline Laporte, she abandoned the energy sapping event after fouling all her attempts in the long jump.

It is to note that Seychelles, represented by 53 athletes in Abuja, won an unprecedented 16 medals – 10 silver and six bronze – at the just-ended Eighth All-Africa Games.

The previous highest total of eight medals – two silver and six bronze – was registered during the seventh edition of the quadrennial Games in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1999.

The Seychellois silver medallists in Abuja in the continent's biggest multi-sports event were female weightlifter Janet Thélermont (three), female swimmer Austin (three), female javelin thrower Lindy Leveaux, male high jumper Jude Sidonie and male weightlifters Richard Scheer and Steven Baccus.

The country's six bronze medals were won by cyclist Hudson Mathieu, swimmer Shrone Austin, the mixed badminton team of Juliette Ah-Wan, Shirley Etienne, Georgie Cupidon and Nicholas Jumaye, the ladies' doubles pair of Ah-Wan and Etienne and Ah-Wan again in the ladies' singles and weightlifter Richard Scheer.

G. G.