Ninth All-Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria-Cycling |17 July 2007
Represented by four cyclists, Seychelles lost Francis Louis during the first lap of the nine-lap race following a mass fall. The young rider, who is still complaining of pain in the left shoulder, was later examined by sports doctor Ruben who diagnosed a bone movement in the shoulder.
"It hurts a lot, but I hope I will be ready for the Indian Ocean Islands Games next month," said Louis who had been training in South Africa lately.
On the Kolea circuit, there were more mass falls with a total of 36 cyclists failing to go the distance.
The first Seychellois rider to cross the finish line at the end of the 150km race was Hedson Mathieu with a time of 3 hours 57 minutes 44 seconds (3h57:44) for 32nd position overall out of the 74 cyclists who finished the grueling race. Mathieu, who was in the leading group until the seventh lap but fell behind after not receiving water and glucose to restore energy, was 8:53 seconds slower than the time - 3h48:51 - clocked by winner Daryl Impey of South Africa.
"It was a tough race raced in hot conditions. I was doing OK but when I did not get water at some point in the race, I began to dehydrate and lose strength. Otherwise I'm quite satisfied with my performance," said Mathieu, winner of a bronze medal in Abuja, Nigeria in 2003 in the individual time-trial which does not feature on the grogramme this year.
Seven cyclists were involved in the final sprint for first place and Impey edged the other contenders for first place in 3h48:51.
The other six riders - Eritrean Frikalsi Oebesay (second), Tunisian Rafaa Cheteoui (third), Kenyan Chris Froome (fourth), Eritrean Gebrihiwot Merhawi (fifth), Mauritians Thomas Deveaux and Yannick Lincoln (sixth and seventh) - all fell as they crossed the finish line.
The second Seychellois rider to finish the race was Jim Melanie who finished 41st with 4h02:25, while Leeroy Labiche clocked 4h30:14 for 61st place overall.
Both Labiche and Melanie fell during the race and lost time.
It is to note that Algerian world champion Hichem Chabane could only finish 18th overall with 3h51:42.
In the under-23 ranking, Tunisian Rafaa Cheteoui, Kenyan Chris Froome and Eritrean Gebrihiwot Merhawi were first, second and third respectively.
Seychellois Labiche was 28th out of the 31 under-23 riders who completed the race.
Eritrea finished first in both the elite and under-23 team rankings with 11h27:57 and 11h29:22 respectively.
Cameroon (11h33:40) and Algeria (11h37:50) were second and third respectively in the under-23 team classification.
With 11h29:24, South Africa finished second in the elite team ranking for the silver medal, while Cameroon took the bronze with 11h33:40.
Seychelles were one of 13 teams classified and finished 11th with 12h30:23 ahead of Rwanda (12h32:42) and Ghana (13h51:20).
By Gerard Govinden in Algiers