African Weightlifting Championship - Three in search of medals, Olympic qualification |30 April 2016

Three seasoned Seychellois lifters – two females and one male – will leave the country on Tuesday next week for Cameroon to compete in the African Weightlifting Championship.

The lifters are Clementina Agricole (58kg) Janet Georges (69kg) and Rick Confiance (62kg).

They will be accompanied by Seychelles Weightlifting Association chairman Robert Rose and coach MacDonald Henriette.

As the championship is going to also serve as qualifiers for the Rio Olympics in Brazil, the local lifters will not only be vying for medals but also clinch qualification spots for the Games scheduled for August 5-21, 2016.

A total of 17 countries have so far confirmed their involvement in the competition which is scheduled to take place from May 6-14 at the Yaounde sports complex in both the male and female categories.

Like for all Olympic qualifiers, what is required from the lifters is the highest level of commitment to do well.

So far, only four Seychellois athletes have qualified for the Rio Olympics. They are Laser sailor Rodney Govinden, windsurfer Jean-Marc Gardette, boxer Andrique Allisop and sailor Allan Julie in the Finn class.

Laser sailor Rodney Govinden and windsurfer Jean-Marc Gardette were the first two to qualify last year as they finished among the top two in their respective event at the African Championship of Sailing in Algiers, Algeria.

In Rio, Govinden will race in the Laser standard class, while Gardette will compete in RSX windsurfing. They will both be making their debut at the biggest multi-sports events in the world.

Lightweight (60kg) boxer Andrique Allisop qualified for the Rio Olympics after claiming his category’s bronze medal at the International Boxing Association (Aiba) African Continental Olympic qualifying event in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Allisop needed to win his third place play-off and he convincingly beat Tunisian Shili Alaa 3-0 to join Egyptian gold medallist Abdelaal Mahmoud and Algerian silver medallist Reda Benbaziz on the plane to Rio.

This will be Allisop’s second appearance at the Olympic Games after making his debut in London in 2012 where he lost his first fight against Indian Jai Bhagwan on an 8-18 verdict in the men's lightweight (60kg) category bout of the round of 32 at the ExCeL South arena. He lost the first and second rounds on identical scores of 3-7, before losing the third 2-4.

As for Allan Julie, this will be his fifth Olympic appearance after four times sailing the Laser at these Games.

In Rio he will be sailing the Finn class and he made absolutely sure of the African continental selection for Games with nine straight victories over Tunisian Karim Esseghir at the 47th Trofeo Princesa Sofia IBEROSTAR (Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta) in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, from March 25 to April 2 – the final selection regatta for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

He finished 56th in the 74-boat fleet and his best result was a 35th position.

G. G.