Mauritius International Open Weightlifting Championships 2022 |03 March 2022
Seychellois medallists return
Gold medallist Clementina Agricole, bronze medallist Ruby Malvina and silver medallist Romantha Larue returned home yesterday afternoon after competing in the Mauritius International Open Weightlifting Championships 2022 which doubled as a qualification event for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham.
Accompanied by Seychelles Weightlifting Federation chairman Robert Rose and coaches Macdonald Henriette and Pierre Dixie, the three lifters were met on arrival on board Air Seychelles flight HM 408 by the principal secretary for Youth and Sports Ralph Jean-Louis.
At the competition held in Vacoas, Agricole won the overall gold in the women’s 59kg weight category. With a total of 177kg (77kg in snatch and 100kg in clean and jerk) the 33-year-old won the category’s gold medal ahead of a South African who finished with 176kg in total.
Agricole beat the South African in the clean and jerk event to win the gold medal after the two were at the end of the snatch event.
“Despite winning the gold medal, I feel very disappointed with the federation, the National Sports Council and even the ministry responsible for sports with how things are developing in regards to xenophobia in Seychelles sports. This needs to stop once and for all,” said Agricole.
Agricole was making reference to her personal coach, French-Lebanese Zaher Hamdan who was denied access to accompany her to Mauritius.
She noted that with her coach not being present, the competition was very difficult and stressful as she had to struggle all by herself to figure out how to tackle her opponents.
As for 37-year-old Malvina, who was competing in the same weight category, she was ranked third with a total of 171kg (76kg in snatch and 95kg in clean and jerk) to claim the bronze medal. Five competitors battled for the medals in the 59kg weight category.
“I went into the competition with injuries in both thighs and I thought the pain would have eased by the time I get to compete, but that did not happen and this made the competition very difficult for me. What I did was I made sure of getting a pass in my first attempts in both exercises to at least register a total weight. If I had not suffered the pain in my thighs, the competition would have taken another turn,” said Malvina who noted that she also had difficulty to bring down her weight as she was not provided with sauna facilities prior to the competition.
In the women’s 87kg weight category, Romantha Larue finished second to a Nigerian for the silver medal with 155kg (70kg in snatch and 85kg in clean and jerk).
“For me the competition was OK and with only the three months training, I am satisfied with my result. I have high hopes that I will do better next time with more training,” said 23-year-old Larue.
The Mauritius International Open Weightlifting Championships 2022 was also serving as qualification for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8, 2022. As for the weight competition in the games, it will run from July 30 to August 3, 2022.
The top eight in the rankings join the outright winners of the Commonwealth Championships, England's host nation selections, and bipartite invitations in fields of 11 and 12 for the 16 weight categories.
The total athlete quota of 180 places is exactly 50 per cent more than the number allocated to weightlifting for Paris 2024 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
According to coach Henriette, taking into account the injury Malvina had and her problem to lose weight after failing to get the proper facility, she did give a good account of herself.
He added that the federation awaits confirmation with regard to the three athletes qualifying or not for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
A fourth lifter, Rick Confiance, could not make the trip to Mauritius because he is not vaccinated against Covid-19.
According to the championship’s regulations, all athletes and accompanying coaches/support personnel must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 – an individual is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after having received two doses of any World Health Organisation (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL) vaccines. Proof of vaccination must be produced for verification by the organising committee prior to participation.
Patrick Joubert