PARENTS and friends of the young hockey players who made history winning the sport's first medal of any hue in Africa, were at the International Airport, Pointe Larue, on Sunday January 18 in the afternoon to welcome the young heroes.

For 10 years, Seychelles had not participated in any international hockey tournament and the return to the mainland of Africa this year was successful.

The young team, under the guidance of Brian Camille (head coach) and Georges Sicobo (assistant coach), have proved that hockey has a future here with some good performances in last week's Mombassa Open Tournament in Kenya.

After a 2-0 victory over Mombassa Sports Club in their first match where they got goals from Jonathan Richards (15th minute) and Franky Naiken (55th minute), Seychelles played a scoreless draw with Mombassa Institute to qualify for last Friday's final.

Their opponents were the same Mombassa Institute team and the second meeting in five days between the two sides went in favour of the Kenyans who had the last laugh with a 2-0 win.

The Seychellois thus settled for the silver medal as the players of Mombassa Institute celebrated victory.

Head coach Camille described the experience as unbelievable.

"It is unbelievable how the young lads played their hearts out in Mombassa. They heeded the coaches' advice and reaped the reward. Their performance has gone down in Seychelles hockey history for it is the first time that a local team have been able to get a victory over an opponent from the mainland of Africa. It's a pleasure working with the bunch of skilful players and hopefully they'll stay around so that we will have a god team in three years time for the Ninth All-Africa Games," said Camille.

The 14 players who represented Seychelles in the Mombassa Open Tournament were Danny D'Souza (captain), Ervell Barra (vice-captain), Daniel Jeannevol, Adam Richards, Andrew Charles, Jonathan Richards, Michael Léon, Franky Naiken, Jerry Furneau, Benjamin Doway, Jan Mohamed, Michel Japhet, Ashley Mussard and Alex Freminot.

They are all aged between 15 and 18 years.

It is to note that the last time a Seychelles national side took part in an international competition – the African Championship – was in 1993.

G. G.