Rio Olympic Games 2016-Lifter Confiance finishes 13th with 232kg |10 August 2016

Making his debut at the Olympics, young Seychellois lifter Rick Confiance was ranked 13th in the 62kg weight class on Monday in Rio de Janeiro.

Competing in group one on day three at the Riocentro Pavillion 2, Confiance registered 105kg in snatch and 127kg in clean & jerk for an Olympic total of 232kg – 6kg below his best performance of 238kg (108kg in snatch and 130kg in clean & jerk).

Invited by the International Weightlifting Federation, Confiance must have gathered a lot of experience competing against some of the world’s best lifters despite not improving his performances and finishing 13th and last.  The 22-year-old could take comfort that four other lifters did not finish the event, among them world record holder Chen Lijun who pulled out because of leg cramps.

Chen of China pulled out during the snatch round after he found treatment on the cramp to be “pretty useless”.

“They tried to massage my leg, it was just not useful,” he said. “It has never ever happened before.”

The gold medal was won by Colombian Oscar Albeiro Figueroa Mosquera who has decided to end his career on top.

The 33-year-old clinched the gold medal with a total of 318kg (142kg in snatch and 176kg in clean & jerk). After his final attempt, Figueroa Mosquera removed his shoes and laid them down on the platform, signifying his retirement from competition.

Indonesian Eko Yuli Irawan took the silver medal with a total of 312kg (142kg in snatch and 170kg in clean & jerk) and Farkhad Kharki of Kazakstan earned the bronze with a total of 305kg (135kg in snatch and 170kg in clean & jerk).

In sailing and windsurfing at the Marina de Glória, Laser sailor Rodney Govinden was in 45th place overall going into yesterday’s third and fourth races.

He was 45th in the first race won by Croat Tonci Stipanović and settled for 41st place in the second dominated by Brazilian Robert Scheidt.

Croat Stipanović was the overall leader with 6 points at the start of the third race and he was followed in second and third places by Argentine Julio Alsogaray (6 points) and Russian Sergey Komissarov (11 points).

In windsurfing, Jean-Marc Gardette was in 35th position with 68 points after the first three races – 64 points more than leader Nick Dempsey of Great Britain who has just 2 points.

Dempsey won the first two races, while victory in the third went to Dorian van Rijsselberghe of the Netherlands.

Three races were on the programme for yesterday.

Meanwhile, five-time Olympian Allan Julie was expected in action in the Finn class for the first time yesterday.

The final day of the different sailing classes is Wednesday August 17.

Julie, Govinden and Gardette are three of the five Seychellois athletes who qualified for the Games.

The other two are judoka Dominic Dugasse who is expected to fight on the mat in the -100kg weight class today and boxer Andrique Allisop who suffered a cut above his left eye and lost 0-3 to Irish Oliver David Joyce on Sunday in the light weight (60kg) class.

Male swimmer Adam Viktora will take the start of the 50m freestyle race today, while in track and field athletics, young Ned Azemia is slated to run the 400m hurdles on Monday August 15 and female high jumper Lissa Labiche will compete on Thursday August 18.

Reigning Sportswoman of the Year Labiche is in fact the last Seychellois athlete expected in action at the Games.

Sports enthusiasts can follow the action on Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) TV every day. There will be live broadcasts from 10.30pm to 3am and rebroadcast as from 3pm.

The XXVI Olympiad will end on Sunday August 21 with the closing ceremony.