THE XVII Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, enter their eighth day on Thursday August 1 but Seychellois representatives at the quadrennial Games have not been doing a fine job in the English city.

The local athletes, who have the daunting task of bettering the two silver medals won by former boxers Roland Raforme (heavyweight) and Jerry Legras (light welterweight) four years ago in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, haven't been able to put up solid performances in Manchester to climb onto the medals podium.

In the Manchester Aquatics Centre on Wednesday July 31, 23-year-old Barnsley Albert, who clocked 4:23.59 on Tuesday July 30  400-metre freestyle heat, 6.18 seconds slower than Kenny Roberts'  Seychelles record of 4:17.41 set in 1998, registered a time of 2:03.71 in the second of the three-heat 200-metre freestyle preliminaries.

His performance, which allowed him to finish ahead of four swimmers from Nigeria and Gibraltar, was way off the Seychelles best mark of 1:54.29 belonging to Roberts.

It is to be noted that Albert was in the same heat as Australian swimming sensation Ian Thorpe during last Tuesday's 400-metre freestyle preliminaries. The Thorpedo, who is chasing seven gold medals at the Games, went on to beat his own world record with a time of 3:40.08 in the final.

On Wednesday July 31 50-metre butterfly preliminaries, Jean-Paul Adam, took seventh place in heat number three with a time of 27.27 seconds which is well outside Roberts' best time of 24.03 seconds set in 1996.

Despite not qualifying for Wednesday July 31 semifinals, his performance allowed him to be ranked 36th out of 42 swimmers in the competition .

Twenty-five-year-old Adam, it is worth noting, also took part on  Tuesday July 30 200-metre butterfly preliminaries, clocking 2:11.39 in heat number two for fifth place ahead of Ben Lowndes of Guernsey (2:11.79).

In judo at the G-Mex Centre, Francis Labrosse won his -60-kg category preliminary round bout against Ghanaian Amoakoon on Tuesday July 30. The 23-year-old then lost to Canadian D. G. Simard in the quarterfinal and in repechage round, he defeated N. Keneke before losing to Cameroonian J. C. Cameroun, thus missing out on a place in the final for the bronze medal.

Englisman C. Fallon won the gold medal of the -60-kg category following his victory over Indian A. Shah in the final.

Gerard Baker, the other fighter in the Seychelles two-man judo team, competed in the -81-kg division yesterday and lost to T. Cousins of England in the first round. The 24-year-old was to meet Faka'Osi in the repechage round yesterday but at the time of going to press, his result was not known.

In badminton at the Bolton Arena, both male players – Georgie Cupidon and Nicholas Jumaye – lost in the round of 128.

Seychelles' male number one player Cupidon, 21, lost 0-3 to Nigerian B. Topping and Jumaye was also whitewashed 0-3 by New Zealander G. Bellingham.