12th African Games in Rabat, Morocco |26 August 2019

Passon has made history with Seychelles’ first gold medals at the African Games

Felicity Passon wins second gold medal in 100m backstroke

Felicity Passon gave Seychelles its second gold medal on Saturday, the final day of the swimming competition at the ongoing 12th African Games in Rabat, Morocco by winning the 100m backstroke in the Mohammed V Olympic Swimming Pool.

She clocked 1 minute 02.42 seconds (1:02.42), relegating Ruelle Naomi Keneilwe of Botswana into second place (1:02.62). Kerryn Herbst was third in 1:03.76.

Passon won her first gold medal in the 200m backstroke event in a new Seychelles record time of 2:14.55 on the first day of the swimming competition.

She has also won a silver and bronze medals.

Her silver medal came in the 50m backstroke in a time of 29.17 seconds for a new Seychelles record and she clocked 1:00.61 for another Seychelles record in the 100m butterfly for a bronze medal.

The first Seychellois swimmer to win a gold medal at the African Games, Passon surely did not disappoint in her first appearance at these Games and the 20-year-old is expected back home tomorrow afternoon after what has surely been a very successful season since she also won 11 medals – seven gold, three silver and one bronze – at the 10th Indian Ocean Islands Games in July in Mauritius.

She will only be home for one day before she departs on Thursday August 29, 2019 for the next chapter of her swimming career, qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

She will be based in Pretoria and train with coach Rocco Meiring and his team from September 2019.

On behalf of Passon, Flying Fish Aquatics Club chairman Neil Puresh has thanked the National Sports Council for its usual cooperation and ongoing support, as well as the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga), the Swimming Association and all others who have helped contribute in one way or another and last but not least, to everyone who has supported her all along.

Meanwhile, still in swimming in Rabat, Samuele Rossi finished with a time of 24.57 seconds in the 50m freestyle while Mathieu Bachmann clocked 24.64 seconds in the same event.

Simon Bachmann finished the 100m backstroke in 1:01.74.

In volleyball, the country’s women’s team lost in straight sets 0-3 (10-25, 19-25, 13-25) to hosts Morocco in their second group A match on Saturday.

Coached by Julien Onezime, the team have only two points after downing Nigeria 3-2 (25-23, 18-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-11) in their first game.

Their third and final pool A match is against Botswana today.

Morocco lead the standings with maximum six points after also winning their first match against Botswana on a 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-18) score.

Nigeria rebounded from losing their first match to Seychelles to beat Botswana 3-1 (25-13, 22-25, 25-20, 25-15) to bring their points tally to three.

In pool B, Kenya overcame Cameroon 3-1 (25-22, 25-21, 16-25, 25-17) to avenge their defeat against them in the final of the 2019 Women’s African Nations Championship last month.

Both Kenya and Cameroon have three points as Cameroon beat Senegal 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-13) in their first match.

In boxing, Andrique Allisop, who won a bye into the eighth final of the 63kg class, fought Moroccan Nadir Abdelhaq on Friday night and lost 0-5.

Abdelhaq won his fight on a 5-0 score against Tunisian Ben Haj Aouina Akrem to set up the fight against Allisop.

More Seychellois athletes will go into action today in track and field athletics and the country’s weightlifters will be on the platform as from tomorrow.

By yesterday, Seychelles was joint-seventh with Namibia on the medals table with four medals – two gold, one silver and one bronze.

Egypt is leading the table with 78 medals – 25 gold, 35 silver and 20 bronze – followed in second placed by South Africa with 50 medals – 23 gold, 15 silver and 12 bronze. Host Morocco is third with 40 medals – 13 gold, 11 silver and 16 bronze – while Algeria is in fourth position with 44 medals – 12 gold, 12 silver and 20 bronze.

So far, 31 countries have won medals at the Games.

G. G.