IT is said that sports help build a healthy nation and it is therefore right to say that a country's history is incomplete without its sports annals.

This is exactly what the sports planning and development division of the Sports Department within the Ministry of Local Government, Sports and Culture is planning to do.

For the past 25 years, Seychellois athletes have been making us all proud by competing on a par and achieving great things in the international sporting arena.

Their results and achievements should therefore not be left to history.

A working committee, chaired by Jean Larue, director general for sports planning and development, has embarked on a mission to gather those results and photos for a publication entitled History of Sports in Seychelles as well as set up a sports heritage library and documentation centre.

According to Mr Larue, the purpose of the project is to make a comprehensive collection of information about people who have contributed to the country's sports history.

Other than Mr Larue, the working committee comprises Kantilal Jivan Shah, Rolly Baker, Anthime Hoareau, Ismael Chaka, Antonio Gopal, Ayub Suleman, Eric Arnepy and Peter Lalande.

Mr Larue has described those people, who are historians, past athletes and officials, long term members of sporting authorities here, staff of the sports ministry, as "valuable personnel".

"Each Seychellois has something to say, something to tell about their fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers etc. This project is dedicated to all men and women who brought joy and entertainemnt to their generations. They laid the foundation stone for the Seychelles sports we know today," according to Mr Larue.

Members of the public who have any kind of information are asked to make their contributions by phoning Mr Larue on telephone number 225477 or send them to his office at Oceangate House.

The accomplishments of sportsmen and women of past and present generations are proof of the rich history of Seychelles' sports and gathering all these information will help in getting young people to learn about past champions.

With more than 28 sporting disciplines practised here, the project will be done on a sport by sport basis. Football has been chosen as the first discipline to launch the series of historcial records.

G. G.