2015 All-Africa Games - Malvina makes history for Seychelles |10 September 2015

. Ah-Wan, Camille win women’s doubles gold

Ruby Malvina is the first Seychellois athlete to win two gold medals at the All-Africa Games and also the first weightlifter to win this precious metal at the continental Games after her performance yesterday.

Juliette Ah-Wan and Alisen Camille also clinched the women’s doubles gold medal by beating the Mauritian pair of Kate Foo Kune and Yeldy Louison 2-1 in yesterday’s final.

In the semifinal they defeated the Nigerian team of Gabriel and Maria 2-0 (21-13, 21-16).

In the mixed doubles, the team of Georgie Cupidon and Juliette Ah-Wan won the bronze for Seychelles after they lost 0-2 (15-21, 18-21) to South Africa’s Malan and Fry in their semifinal encounter.

Weightlifter Malvina, who won three gold medals at the ninth Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) last month in the 58kg weight category, followed up that performance by winning two gold medals and one silver to be crowned the African champion in her category at the ongoing All-Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville.

Despite lifting 2kg less than her IOIG total performance of 191kg, Malvina managed to win a silver medal in snatch with a lift of 80kg, before lifting 109kg in the clean & jerk for gold. Her total 181kg earned a second gold medal.

“I feel good to win two gold medals and a silver. I expected three bronze medals, but I fought very hard when I stepped on the platform,” Malvina told Sports Nation in a telephone interview.

As for Sportswoman of the Year Clementina Agricole, she could not emulate her IOIG performance as she claimed one silver medal and two bronze in the 63kg category.  

Agricole managed to improve on her IOIG performance by lifting 91kg in the snatch event for the bronze medal and 115kg in the clean & jerk for silver. Her total of 206kg won a second bronze medal. Her IOIG performance was a total of 202kg (91kg in snatch and 111kg in clean & jerk).

In volleyball, the women’s team clinched their fourth consecutive win to secure passage into the semifinal after thumping hosts Congo Brazzaville 3-0 (25-6, 25-13, 25-13) yesterday evening. Seychelles will be joined by Egypt who beat Ghana 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-15) earlier yesterday to also secure their passage through to the knockout phase.

The last match of the group stage for Seychelles will be a titanic clash with the Egyptians as the tie will decide the group winners.

While the women’s team have been on a winning streak, our men’s team have been the exact opposite. On Tuesday night the team coached by François Ally suffered a third defeat on the trot, leaving their medal hopes in tatters.

Shaine Farabeau scored a match leading 23 points, but that was not enough as Seychelles lost 1-3 (23-25, 23-25, 25-19, 19-25) in an exciting encounter. Seychelles’ remaining matches are against Cameroon and Ghana where the team will now be hoping to fight for honour as qualification to the semifinal is now unlikely.

In swimming, Alexus Laird, who has already won a bronze medal for Seychelles, competed in the 100m backstroke final but failed to make it to the podium this time finishing sixth with a time of 1 minute 05.45 seconds (1:05.45).

The gold medal in this event went to Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Leigh with a time of 1:01.15, while the silver and bronze medals were won by two South Africans – Karin Prinsloo (1:02.53) and Jessica Cooper (1:03.22) respectively.

In basketball, the men’s national team were to play their opening game against host nation Congo Brazzaville yesterday. Seychelles have been drawn in group A alongside Angola, Egypt, Gabon and the hosts, while group B consists of Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Mali and Mozambique.

S. N.