African Sambo Championship |15 May 2017
Dugasse wins gold as Seychelles finishes fourth
● Morocco overall winner
Praslinois Dominique Dugasse won Seychelles’ only gold medal at the African Sambo Championship which the country hosted at the weekend at the Palais des Sports.
During the championship’s last fight on Saturday ‒ the second and final day ‒ Dugasse won the men’s 100+kg sambo sport category by beating Saanouni Makrem of Tunisia 3-0 in a very tactical final. Seychellois Amanda Payet won the silver medal in the women’s 90+kg sport sambo category as Seychelles also won three bronze medals through Roge Gabriel and Lanndio Victorin (men’s sambo) and Brian Alcindor (men’s combat sambo).
Seychelles came out in fourth position with six medals ‒ 1 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze. Morocco was the outright winner with 12 medals ‒ 7 gold and 5 silver. Cameroon also won 7 gold medals but only collected two silver and 4 bronze for a total of 13.
It was the youth and sports principal secretary Fabian Palmyre who presented Dugasse with his gold medal in front of a small supporting crowd.
The 100+kg sambo sport category final between Dugasse and Makrem was tactical and a show of strength as both fighters made their movements cautiously, waiting for the other to make a mistake before attacking.
It was Makrem who made two errors and he was penalised by the referee in the 2nd minute as Dugasse was awarded with one point. With both fighters not able to show superiority, Dugasse was awarded with another 2 points to lead 3-0 in the 4th minute as again Makrem was penalised by the referee.
“I knew the fight was going to be tough but I wanted to win and have the national anthem played in front of our public. I am very happy that I have been able to win a gold medal for Seychelles,” said a happy Dugasse.
He added: “My opponent is bigger and heavier than me and he was using his strength well but I contained him by moving around and pushing him out of the mat from time to time. That made him grow tired and as a result he was unable to apply his tactics.”
To reach the final, Dugasse won 8-0 over Sarvesh Lutchmun of Mauritius who also lost 0-8 to Makrem.
After winning her first fight 8-0 (ippon) against Nikeeta Jeebun of Mauritius in just 23 seconds, Amanda Payet met Dechantal Fokou of Cameroon in the final of the women’s 80+kg sambo sport category final and she lost 1-11 in just 1 minute 30 seconds.
“My first fight was very easy but the final was very difficult. I put too much pressure on myself and grew tired. On the whole, I am very satisfied with the silver medal won and my performance,” said Payet who has taken part in international sambo competitions in Niger and Moscow before.
This was in fact Seychelles’ second silver medal after Cheryl Marie lost the women’s 64kg sambo sport category final to Cameroonian Paule Sitcheping on a 0-4 score after just 56 seconds in the 4-minute fight on the opening day of the competition last Friday.
In the preliminary rounds in the morning, Seychellois Lanndio Victorin won his first 62kg sambo sport fight on a 2-1 score over Deogratis Toudji of Benin and lost his second 0-2 against Sami Makni of Tunisia to finish with a bronze medal. Ayoub Kourou from Morocco was the winner in this category.
Roge Gabriel also won a bronze medal for Seychelles in the 90+kg sambo sport category after losing to Mahamadou Amadou from Nigeria. The gold medal in this category was won by Houcine Chakiri from Morocco.
Brian Alcindor was the only Seychellois who took part in sambo combat category and he won the bronze medal in the 74kg category despite losing both his fights 0-9 to Rene MBong from Cameroon and 0-8 to Elhoussine Zouad.
Twelve countries took part in this year’s African Sambo Championship ‒ Seychelles, Tunisia, Congo Brazzaville, Morocco, Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Algeria, Mauritius, DR Congo, Ivory Coast and Niger.
Those who wanted to get acquainted to sambo gathered at the Beau Vallon beach yesterday afternoon to learn the sport and follow a demonstration.
The following are the results of Saturday’s finals:
Men’s 62kg sambo sport: Ayoub Kourou of Morocco beat Sami Makni of Tunisia 3-0
Women’s 80+kg sambo sport: Dechantal Fokou of Cameroon beat Amanda Payet of Seychelles 11-1
Men’s 62kg combat sambo: Celestine Fokam of Cameroon beat Bouchaib Laghfiri of Morocco 1-0 (Laghfiri retired injured).
Men’s 74 kg sambo sport: Nwatsok Nnouk of Cameroon beat Moncef Hlala of Morocco 1-1 (referee awarded the fight to Nnouk)
Men’s 47kg combat sambo: Elhoussine Zouad of Morocco beat Rene Mbong of Cameroon 10-1
Men’s 90kg sambo sport: El Houcine Chakiri of Morocco beat Mahamadou Amadou Moumouni of Niger 6-0
Men’s 90kg combat sport: Nasser Edderdak of Morocco beat Mickeal Tchamou of Cameroon 11-6
Men’s 100+kg sambo sport: Dominique Dugasse of Seychelles beat Saanouni Makrem of Tunisia 3-0
P. J.
The final medals table:
Teams Gold Silver Bronze Total
Morocco 7 5 0 12
Cameroon 7 2 4 13
Tunisia 1 3 1 5
Seychelles 1 2 3 6
Niger 0 2 o 2
Egypt 0 1 2 3
Algeria 0 1 0 1
Mauritius 0 0 2 2
Ivory Coast 0 0 1 1