Athletics-Decathlon challenge for Sidonie |08 March 2006

He was high jump silver medallist at both the Sixth Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Mauritius and the Eighth All-Africa Games in Aubuja, Nigeria with bars of 2.10 metres and then picked up a bronze medal at the first edition of the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad, India.

Unable to match these performances in 2004 and 2005, Jude Sidonie, who also plays volleyball with first division team Roots, has set himself a new target.

“I want to be a decathlete and I’m looking forward to my first competition to get an idea of how my training has been coming along. This is a new challenge and I’m working hard towards achieving something big,” the 29-year-old told Sports Nation.

So far Sidonie has competed in five of the 10 events a decathlete needs to do in two days.  His personal bests in those five events are as follows: high jump (2.12 metres), long jump (7.28 metres), shot putt (10.18 metres), discus (28.39 metres) and javelin (33.37 metres).

He now needs to do the pole vault, 1,500 metres, 100 metres, 110 metres hurdles and 400 metres.

“I will line up in the starting blocks of the sprint events during the next meet – the Open Season competition - on March 24 and 25. I want to perform well and I feel I can clock some good times,” he said.

Training under the guidance of former Olympian and triple jumper Arthur Agathine, Sidonie hopes to get a scholarship to train in neighbouring Mauritius at the International Combined Events Centre.

According to a reliable source, it is very likely that when the centre’s board of management meets after the XVIII Commonwealth Games, it will give Sidonie the green light to train in Mauritius.

After Joseph Volcy, probably Seychelles’ first decathlete who is now a jumps coach, Seychelles has known two other decathletes in the first half of the 1990s.

Retired Donny Magnan is the junior record holder with 6,360 points which earned him the gold medal at the African Junior Athletics Championship in Algiers, Algeria in 1994.

The Seychelles senior record of 6,727 points is being held by Red Star’s central defender Percy Laramé. He achieved the best performance on August 28 and 29, 1993 at Stad Popiler during the Fourth IOIG which the country hosted.

Asked if it will take him long to improve the record of 6,727 points, Sidonie replied:
“I’m not afraid of competing over 10 events in two days. I know the events I can do well and I’ll try my best to garner maximum points in those events. My aim is to wipe Laramé’s 6,727 points out of the record books.”

G. G.