30th Sports Awards of the Year: First-time wins for Agricole and Dugasse |01 February 2014

Weightlifter Clementina Agricole battled a tumour two years ago and judoka Dominic Dugasse had high hopes of winning the Sportsman of the Year title in 2012 but finished as runner-up to boxer Andrique Allisop.

The spirits of Agricole and Dugasse were lifted last night when they were crowned Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year 2013 during the 30th Sports Awards of the Year crowning ceremony at the National Sports Council (NSC) exhibition hall.

Both Agricole and Dugasse enjoyed a good year in 2013 when they reached the pinnacle of their career, making them the natural choices for the top awards.

Voted Young Female Athlete of the Year in 2004, Agricole is the third weightlifter after Sophia Vandagne (in 1999) and Janet Georges (formerly Thélermont, in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2010) to win the Sportswoman of the Year title.

One year after making her comeback to the sport of weightlifting following a two-year lay-off after being operated on to remove a brain tumour at the G. B. Pant Hospital, Agricole was the 58kg weight class silver medallist at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Penang, Malaysia. She finished with an Olympic total of 190kg (85kg in snatch and 105kg in clean & jerk) to claim the silver medal behind the gold medallist from Nigeria.

As for Dugasse, he is the first judoka to win the Sportsman of the Year title and is also the first Praslin-based athlete to lift the huge trophy.

The 28-year-old won the -100kg category gold medal at the African Open Championship in Mauritius and also took top position in the same weight category at the international judo tournament organised by the Seychelles Judo Federation.

At the African Senior Championship, he was ranked fifth in the -100kg class, but finished seventh at both the European Cup in Germany and the Bondie Cup in France. He also took part in the Grand Prix in Paris, France, the World Senior Championship in Brazil and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix where he was ranked 54th worldwide.
 
Agricole and Dugasse succeeded Lissa Labiche and Andrique Allisop as the best.

The sport of weightlifting produced two more winners last night in Romentha Larue and Derreck Côme.

Larue took home the Young Female Athlete of the Year title after amassing six medals – three silver (in the youth category) and three bronze (in the junior category) – after finishing with an Olympic total of 110kg (50kg snatch and 60kg clean-and-jerk) in the 53kg class at the African Junior Weightlifting Championship held in Casablanca, Morocco.

Côme lined up in the youth 85kg class and won three silver medals after lifting 98kg in snatch and 116kg in clean-and-jerk for an Olympic total of 214kg at the same championship.

In fact, Côme and Larue are the third lifters to win the Young Male and Young Female Athlete of the Year titles.

The first male lifter to win the title was Terence Dixie in 2002 followed by Sirous Farabeau in 2011, while newly crowned Sportswoman of the Year Clementina Agricole was the first recipient of the Young Female Athlete of the Year title coming from the sport of weightlifting. Her sister Rena Agricole won the title in 2011.

    
G. G.