Fallen hero Beauchamp’s memory sails on |15 November 2010

SEYCHELLES has lost one of its faithful sons – track and field athlete Danny Beauchamp who always defended the Seychelles colours with verve and determination. He was 41 years old.

The former jumps specialist died on Friday night (November 12, 2010) at the North East Point Hospice. He had been confined to a wheelchair since he was involved in a road accident on July 4, 2004 at Anse Aux Pins. He was 34 at the time of the accident.

The double Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) long jump gold medallist in Seychelles (in 1993) and in Reunion (in 1998) spent a month at the Miot Hospital in India in February 2005 for an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) for paraplegia.

Paraplegia is considered as severe or complete loss of motor function in the lower extremities and lower portions of the trunk. This condition is most often associated with spinal cord diseases, although brain, peripheral nervous system, neuromuscular, and muscular diseases may also cause bilateral leg weakness.   It may cause paralysis of both lower extremities and, generally, the lower trunk as a result of severe injuries to the back caused by accidents.

Before leaving for India in 2005, Beauchamp told Sports Nation that although it was tough to accept the fact that he could not walk, he was lucky to be alive and thanked God.

“At first, it was tough and I could not live with the fact that I could not walk. Then, I told myself: ‘you have to be strong. It’s not the end of the world and it’s no use thinking about what happened. You have to get your life together and think of how to regain full fitness and start walking again. I’ve known friends and other people who have died in accidents.

“I will walk one day. Somebody who was once involved in an accident and was paralysed, told me that it took him seven years to walk again. I think positive and leave everything in the hands of our Father in Heaven,” Beauchamp told Sports Nation.

Father of two boys, the eldest Ronny is 20 years old and the youngest Gino is 12, Sportsman of the Year 1993 Beauchamp still holds the Seychelles long jump record of 7.86 metres set in Mauritius on June 28, 1992 during the African Senior Athletics Championship to win the bronze medal.

The former all-rounder, whose personal best in the high jump is 2.13 metres, represented Seychelles at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992, finishing 37th out of 50 competitors with 7.44m in the long jump. In the high jump, he cleared the bar at 2.10m in the qualifiers to be ranked 38th.

During the Games, he brushed shoulders with Americans Carl Lewis, who won a third consecutive long jump gold medal with a distance of 8.67m, Mike Powell and Joe Greene, and Cubans Iván Predoso and Jaime Jefferson.

Apart from winning Seychelles’ only track and field gold medal at the fifth IOIG in Reunion, Beauchamp grabbed a silver medal in the high jump and a bronze in the 4 x 100m relay with teammates Danny Benoit, Nelson Lucas and Tony Gabriel.

Beauchamp also twice represented Seychelles at the Commonwealth Games – in Victoria, Canada, in 1994 (finishing 30th overall with a distance of 5.22m in the long jump), and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1998 (finishing ninth in his heat with a distance of 7.36m in the long jump).

Bravo ‘Ton Dan’ you made us all proud. Local singer Philip Toussaint also pays tribute to the fallen hero  in his song ‘Ton Dan’ which features on his latest release ‘Santiman’.

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Danny Beauchamp’s fact file

. 1992 Senior African Athletics Championship – long jump bronze medallist with 7.86m (Seychelles record)
.  Competed at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain – 7.44m in the long jump
.  IOIG 1993 in Seychelles – long jump gold medallist
.  Sportsman of the Year 1993
.  Competed at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, in 1994 (finishing 30th overall with a distance of 5.22m in the long jump),
.  Competed at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1998 (finishing ninth in his heat with a distance of 7.36m in the long jump)
.  IOIG 1998 in Reunion – long jump gold medallist, high jump silver medallist, 4x 100m relay bronze medallist with teammates Danny Benoit, Nelson Lucas and Tony Gabriel.

G. G.