Beijing Olympic Games: boxing competition-Seychellois boxers miss out |03 April 2008

At the recent 2nd AIBA African Olympic qualification tournament in Windhoek, Namibia, Seychellois fighters Dave César (54-kg), McFarlène Estrale (57-kg), Jean-Paul Mellie (60-kg), Nigel Benoit (64-kg) and Alvin Gabriel (69-kg) all lost their first bouts to make an early return home.

The last Seychellois boxer to qualify for the Olympics was Kitson Julie, in 2004 after he won Seychelles its first and only African Boxing Championship gold medal so far.

Julie was crowned the 64-kg division champion at the 15th African Boxing Championship in Gaborone, Botswana, to make his first Olympic appearance in Athens, Greece in 2004 when he met with a tall order in his first fight. He had no solution for Australian Anoushirvan Nourian in his light welterweight fight, losing 22-51 with the judges scoring the bout 6-12, 7-12, 5-12 and 4-15.

This is only the second time Seychelles will not be represented at the Olympic Games since the country made its first appearance in the multi-sports event in 1980 in Moscow, Russia.

At the 1980 Olympics, Michael Pillay came through his first test in style, beating Danish Ole Hylgaard Svendsen on points before being knocked out by Yugoslav Mamet Bogujevci in the second round of his second bout of the 67-kg category.

Competing in the featherweight division, Remy Zialor lost on points to Ethiopian Leoul Nearaio in his first fight, while Michel Moncherry did not box in the light welterweight division.

In 1984 in Los Angeles, USA, Jean-Claude Labonté lost on points – 0-5 – to Spaniard Jose Antonio Hernando in the 60-kg category. Basil Boniface also lost his 67-kg bout by RSCH (Referee Stopped Contest Head) after 1 minute 40 seconds in the second round against Irishman Kieran Joyce. Boxing in the 63.5-kg category, Remy Zialor lost 0-5 to Cameroonian Jean-Pierre Mbereke.

Ralph Labrosse was the only Seychellois boxer to win a fight in Los Angeles, beating Cameroonian Pierre Claver Mella 4-1 on a split points decision and then lost by knockout – 1 minute 10 seconds – in the second round against Ivorian Sery Gnohere.

As Seychelles did not take part in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, the country’s next appearance was in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992. Rival Cadeau (now Payet) won his first light middleweight bout 5-3 against Moroccan Mohamed Mesbani and then lost 3-20 to former world number two, American Raul Marquez, in the second round.

Known as the Seychellois hand of stone, Roland Raforme started his Olympic campaign in awesome style, crushing Australian Rick Timperi 27-7 in his first round light heavyweight bout. He took another step towards achieving his medal-winning dream when he knocked out Frenchman Patrice Aouissi with 57 seconds left in the second round of his second fight. One bout away from a bronze medal, Raforme lost 3-11 to Hungarian Zoltan Beres in the quarterfinal.

In 1996 in Atlanta, USA, Raforme was knocked out by Canadian Troy Amos with 2 minutes 16 seconds gone in the third round of his first light heavyweight bout.

Light welterweight (63.5-kg) Jerry Legras out-pointed Colombian Dairo Esala 26-12 in the first round before bowing out on a 7-13 score to Iranian Babak Moghimi in his next fight.

Rival Payet cleared the first hurdle in the light middleweight category by scoring a resounding 22-7 victory against Brazilian Jorge Silva in the first round to meet Ghanaian Asiakwei Aryee in the next round. He won the fight on points but then lost by RSCH after 1 minute 24 seconds in the first round to Uzbekistan’s Karim Tulaganov.

It is worth noting that a total of 29 boxers qualified from Namibia, filling Africa's quota of 60 boxers for the quadrennial games.

Two African boxers got Beijing berths at the Chicago AIBA World Championship last year and another 29 made it from the 1st AIBA African Olympic qualification tournament in Algeria in January.
Of the 29 boxers who earned their qualifying spots in Namibia were Bruno Julie (54-kg silver medallist of Mauritius), Louis Richardo Colin (64-kg gold medallist of Mauritius) and Jean de Dieu Solonianina (60-kg gold medallist of Madagascar).

With the qualifying process for Africa having been completed, Morocco tops the African qualifying table with 10 qualified boxers followed by Algeria and Ghana with eight and six boxers respectively.

Kenya and Tunisia have five boxers each, Nigeria four, Cameroon, Egypt and Namibia three each, Botswana and Zambia two respectively, RD Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda one each.

G. G.