10th Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG), Mauritius July 19-28 |23 July 2019
Dylan Sicobo (left)
Athletics
Mediocre performance for Team Seychelles on day one
One silver and four bronze medals were the total harvest of Team Seychelles on the first day of the 10th Indian Ocean Island Games’ athletics competition which took place yesterday at the Germain Commarmond Stadium in Bambous, Mauritius.
Seychelles’ silver medal came courtesy of Dylan Sicobo in the men’s 100m final.
A gold medal hopeful for Seychelles, Sicobo was beaten by Mauritian Jonathan Bardottier who is his training partner.
The Seychellois sprinter clocked 10.75 seconds which was not enough as a much in form Bardottier finished the race in 10.64 seconds to keep the gold medal on home soil.
Commenting on his performance Sicobo said the delay in the starting time had its toll on him. He explained that after warming up, they had to wait for quite a while before the race began.
He added that after waiting for over 30 minutes in the call room, along with the cold weather, he was unable to accelerate during the last phase of the race.
Sicobo further added that despite being disappointed, he is looking forward to perform in his next event tomorrow.
Sharry Dodin finished third in the race with a time of 10.77 seconds to win the bronze medal.
Ivan Moïse won the men’s 10,000m bronze medal after finishing in 31 minutes 09.65 seconds (31:09.65).
The race was won by Malagasy Mampitroatsy in 30:37.88, while his compatriot Fenosoa Andriamparany took second place and the silver medal in 31:08.28.
Explaining his race tactics, Moïse said he did not want to keep with the race leader, so he chose to stay with the runner who was slowing him down, allowing his compatriot to extend the gap.
Moïse added that he then decided to chase leader where he occupied second position during most of the race, before Andriamparany managed to overtake him to finish second, winning the silver.
Our handisports athletes were also in action yesterday where Odile Felix and Michael Andrew won a bronze medal each in the 100m races.
Felix finished the race in 15.61 seconds, behind runner-up Gasela Todisoa of Madagascar who clocked 15.26 seconds and race winner Mauritian Ashley Telvave who clocked 15.13 seconds.
In the men’s race, Andrew clocked 12.79 seconds to finish third behind Wilson Turpin of Reunion who was second in 12.56 seconds and Eddy Capdor of Mauritius who finished first in 11.80 seconds.
The athletics competition continues today at the Germain Commarmond Stadium.
The medals table after the first day of competition
Gold Silver Bronze
Mauritius 10 4 3
Madagascar 4 6 0
Reunion 1 4 5
Seychelles 0 1 4
Comoros 0 0 1
Maldives 0 0 1
Mayotte 0 0 0
Text and photos Roland Duval in Mauritius
