31st Sports Awards of the Year crowning ceremony |02 February 2015

Agricole, Allisop the best

Female weightlifter Clementina Agricole and boxer Andrique Allisop are the country’s best female and male athletes of the year 2014.
The pair received the Sportswoman of the Year and Sportsman of the Year titles from President James Michel at Friday evening’s 31st Sports Awards of the Year crowning ceremony at the National Sports Council (NSC) exhibition hall.

The ceremony was also attended by Social Affairs, Community Development and Sports Minister Vincent Meriton, community development and sports principal secretary Denis Rose, NSC chief executive Giovanna Rousseau as well as other ministers, members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of sports federations and associations, representatives of sponsors, athletes, International Olympic Committee member Patrick Chamunda, Olympic Solidarity deputy director Pamela Vipong, Olympic Solidarity’s project manager for the coaches programme Carina Dragomir, Seychelles Honorary Consul in South Korea Dong Jeong and his assistant Julie Kim and other guests.

As prizes, Agricole ad Allisop went home with the huge floating cup, a trophy, a certificate, R15,000, and a Google Nexus with free mobile package for six months sponsored by Cable & Wireless. They will also receive an allowance of R2,000 per month starting February until December 2015 provided they continue to train.

Voted Sportswoman of the Year for the first time in 2013, Agricole competed in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, and took the worst place finish – fourth place – to miss the bronze medal by 3kg in 2014.

“I’m delighted with the win as I did not expect it because I was not too sure of the criteria used by the selection committee. I thank God for giving me back my health and the strength to compete back in sport. I also thank my coaches, Janet Georges and husband Lucas Georges, Miss Giovanna Rousseau and everyone, my family and everyone who has helped me in one way or another,” said 26-year-old Agricole.

The lifter made a comeback to the sport of weightlifting in 2012 after a two-year lay-off following an operation to remove a brain tumour at the G. B. Pant Hospital after she had completed her event at the Commonwealth Games in India in 2010.

As for boxer Allisop, who first won the Sportsman of the Year title in 2012, he was then 60kg weight category gold medallist at the fifth Africa Boxing Cup in South Africa, and also won the 60kg weight category gold medal at the Limassol Boxing Championship in Cyprus.

At the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, he won a fight and then lost in the last 16 stage.
Allisop said he expected to reclaim the title, but preferred to wait until his name was called to be sure of winning.

“I’m happy I’ve won the Sportsman of the Year title for a second time. I knew I had achieved the highest results among the other finalists and I expected to win the title. But I did not want to be too confident about winning the title,” said 21-year-old Allisop who added his objective is to achieve more good results in 2014 to retain the title.

Runner-up to Agricole is judoka Brigitte Rose who was followed in third, fourth and fifth places by Juliette Ah-Wan and Alisen Camille (badminton) and sprinter Joanne Loutoy.

In the male category bodybuilder Ziad Al Adou Mekdachi, boxer Keddy Agnes, Steve Malcouzane and Georgie Cupidon (badminton) were ranked second to fifth.
The runners-up received R8,000, third place finishers R6,000, fourth place finishers R4,000 and fifth place finishers R3,000.

In the younger categories, swimmer Felicity Passon succeeded weightlifter Romentha Larue as Young Female Athlete of the Year and the Young Male Athlete of the Year crown has gone to boxer Keven Kilindo.

Passon is out of the country and her title was collected by her sister Charlotte.
Nantenaina Finesse (judo), Ned Azemia (athletics), Damien Laporte (tennis) and Nicholas Esther (table tennis) were ranked second to fifth respectively in the male category, while Chlorie Cadeau (badminton), Romentha Larue (weightlifting), Therese Soukoup (tennis) and Sarah Rose (basketball) completed the top-five among the females.

Cable & Wireless sponsored the prizes in the young athletes’ categories and it was chief executive Charles Hammond and director of human resource Thomas Dauban who presented the prizes. The winners got R5,000, a trophy and a certificate, the runners-up R4,000, third place finishers R3,000, fourth place finishers R2,000 and fifth place finishers R1,000.

Baie Ste Anne school was named the best primary school, while Praslin as well as the School of Business Studies and Accounting retained the best secondary school and best post-secondary institution titles.

Boxing coach Rival Payet was awarded the coach of the year title, while judo official Ravi Valmont is the best technical official.
The best sports federation has been won by the Seychelles Volleyball Federation.

All athletes chosen as the best in their respective sports won a trophy, a certificate and R3,000.

There were performances by the School of Dance, Taniah, Sandra and Jean-Marc Volcy, along with a karate demonstration during the ceremony.

G. G.