Swimming Six swimmers off to Fina World Championships in Budapest |15 June 2022
Seychelles is to be represented at the 19th Fina World Championships in Budapest from June 18 to July 1 by six swimmers who are expected to leave the country today.
The swimmers chosen to represent Seychelles are Therese Soukoup, Khema Elizabeth, Damien Payet, Alain Vidot, Simon Bachmann and Mathieu Bachmann. Payet will swim the 10km open water event and Vidot will take part in the 5km open water.
They will be accompanied by Seychelles Swimming Association (SSA) chairman David Vidot and coach Jude Vidot.
Although, Seychelles NATION has not been made aware by the SSA of the team’s involvement in the 19th Fina World Championships in Budapest, we got the information through the association’s Facebook page and it was posted on Saturday June 11, 2022.
Sports NATION has also learned that the SSA ran the National Championship on May 26, 27, 28 and 29 and only a handful of swimmers took part after some clubs, precisely Aquafins and Mahé Skimmers Swimming Club, decided that their swimmers should not take part.
The reason why teams did not take part is because the championship did not feature on the initial calendar of events for the year circulated to clubs and was only added two-and-a-half weeks before the taking place of the event. Clubs were also given a short time to prepare their athletes and they received the registration forms on Friday May 20 to be filled in with names of their swimmers and had to return the filled-in forms to the SSA executive committee on Monday May 23.
Last Saturday, the SSA also had its annual general meeting and once again representatives of some clubs did not attend.
Both events were not advertised in the local media by the SSA and it is for this reason that little or no information is available.
It is to note that the SSA has been struck off the register by the Office of the Registrar for non-compliance, but the SSA decided to bring the case to court and a decision is being awaited.
So why is the SSA still being backed financially by the National Sports Council if it has been struck off?
National Sports Council (NSC) chief executive Jean Larue explained that “until the court gives its ruling in this case, NSC still has to finance SSA’s activities”.
Therefore, the further the case drags in court, the longer the wait for swimming enthusiasts to know if there will either be changes within the SSA or a status quo…
Gerard Govinden