2022 Cana Zone IV swimming and open water championships in Lusaka , Zambia Six gold medals for Team Seychelles |20 April 2022
Gold medallist Damien Payet (in red) during the open water medals ceremony
Six gold medals and a new national record are the highlights of the Seychelles swimming selection at the recently-held Confédération Africaine de Natation (Cana) Zone IV swimming and open water championships in Lusaka, Zambia from April 14-18.
Hosted by the Zambia Swimming Union (ZASU) the competition gathered swimmers from 13 countries making up the Cana Zone IV (four) who battled both in the pool and in the lake.
Seychelles’ gold medals came courtesy of Joshua Miller in 200m breaststroke for men 17-29 years in 2 minutes, 29.62 seconds (2.29.62).
The other gold medallists are Therese Soukup 800m freestyle for women 15 to 24 years in 10.07.84, Damien Payet in 5km open water swim (12 years and over) and 800m freestyle for men 15 to 24 years with a time of 9.10.22, Tyler Fred in 100m backstroke for men 17 to 19 years with a time of 1.03.32, and the boys’ relay team of Joshua Miller, Alain Vidot, Adam Moncherry and Tyler Fred in the 4x50m freestyle relay for 15 years and over with a time of 1:37:10 to set a new Cana record.
Seychelles also won four silver and four bronze medals at the competition.
The silver medallists were Joshua Miller (100mbreaststroke 17-29 years with a time of 1.06.96), Therese Soukup in the 3km open water swim (12 years and over) and 400m freestyle (15 years and over) with a time of 4.52.92, and Adam Moncherry in the 50m butterfly (17 to 29 years)).
As for the bronze medals they were won by Alain Vidot in the 3km open water swim, Therese Soukup in the 200m freestyle (17 to 29 years) with a time of 2.17.45, Damien Payet in the 400m freestyle (15 years and over), and Joshua in the 50m breaststroke (17-29 years) with a time of 28.5 seconds.
Overall, Seychelles finished 11th with 496.50 points, after the girls’ team finished 12th with 168 points and the boys’ squad ranked 10th with 328.50 points.
Roland Duval