THE Seychelles badminton foursome finished fourth in the group stage of the mixed team competition of the on-going Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.

Spearheaded by Seychelles' female number one Juliette Ah-Wan, who was recently crowned ladies' singles champion of the All-Africa Senior Badminton Championship in Casablanca, Morocco, the country's team, also comprising Catherina Paulin, Nicholas Jumaye and Georgie Cupidon, collected just one win in four matches.

Drawn in group D along with New Zealand, India, Mozambique and Northern Ireland in the mixed team competition, Seychelles' only victory was against neighbours Mauritius whom they beat 3-2.

The team lost their other three matches 0-5 against New Zealand and India and 1-4 against Nigeria in the Bolton Arena.

New Zealand finished as pool D winners with four wins and qualified along with the other three groups winners – England (pool A), Scotland (pool B), and Singapore (pool C) – for the semifinals.

England were to play Scotland in the first last-four match while New Zealand were to meet Singapore in the other on Monday July 29.

The mixed team competition comprises five matches – one men's singles, one women's singles, one men's doubles, one women's doubles and one mixed doubles.

In athletics, after 400-metre runner Evans Marie failed to progress to the second round of the one-lap race at the 38,000-seater City of Manchester Stadium last Friday, clocking a slow time of 49.01 seconds, which is way off his personal best and Seychelles junior record of 48.42 seconds, it was high jumper Eugène Ernesta's turn to make his exit from the competition on Sunday July 28.

Competing in the group A qualifiers, La Digue-born Ernesta, whose national record stands at 2.20 metres but has been performing poorly of late, could only clear the bar at 2 metres.

Ernesta, who failed all his three attempts at 2.05 metres, finished eighth out of nine competitors in his qualifying group.

The 12 qualifiers for the high jump final are Canadians Kwaku Boateng and Mark Boswell, Englishmen Ben Challenger, Richard Aspden and Dalton Grant, Welshmen Robert Mitchell, Australian Nick Moroney, Cypriot Ioannis Constantinou, Jamaican Craig Norman, Henderson Dottin and Damon Thompson (Barbados) and Martin Aram (Isle of Man). All 12 finalists either cleared 2.10m or 2.15m.

At the Wythenshawe Forum Centre, lightweight (60-kg) boxer Jean-Paul Mellie, who is making his debut at the Games, was sent packing home by Canadian Antonin Hortie-Decarie. The Canadian won on  Saturday July 26 fight 26-10.

Twenty-six boxers are involved in this category.

As for Seychelles' other pugilist at the Games, Kitson Julie, he threw his first punch in the boxing competition on  Friday  July 26 but did not last long, losing by RSCH (Referee Stopped Contest Head) to Ugandan D. Mwanje in the second round

The 19-year-old Julie, who was looking to follow in the footsteps of his uncle and coach Roland Raforme, winner of a heavyweight silver medal during the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, competed in the featherweight (57-kg) category.

Twelve boxers have entered in this division.

In cycling, Hudson Mathieu clocked 1 hour 10:51.59 in the 46.8-km individual time-trial to be placed 22nd, while Andy Rose took 32nd position with a time of 1h18:14.35.

Australian cyclists swept all three medals in this competition with Cadel Evans winning the gold with a fast time of 1h00:53.50, Michael Rogers the silver with 1h02:50.36 and Nathan O'Neill the bronze with 1h03:20.69.