12th African Games in Rabat, Morocco |02 September 2019

Seychelles finishes 18th position overall

Seychelles has taken 18th position overall at the12th African Games which came to an end on Saturday after 15 days of competition.

The country’s delegation picked up four medals – two gold, one silver and one bronze – at the Games.

Female swimmer Felicity Passon, who was the country’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony, won all four medals in the Mohammed V Olympic Swimming Pool.

The first Seychellois swimmer to win a gold medal at the African Games in her first appearance, 20-year-old Passon’s gold medals came in the 100m backstroke (1:02.42) and 200m backstroke (2:14.55). She also won the silver medal in the 50m backstroke (29.17 seconds for a new Seychelles record) and clocked 1:00.61 for another Seychelles record in the 100m butterfly for a bronze medal.

Altogether 41 out of the 54 countries who took part won medals.

The Seychelles government had promised Seychellois medallists at the Games cash prizes of R60,000 (gold medal), R30,000 (silver medal) and R15,000 (bronze medal)

Meanwhile, this newspaper has been able to retrieve some more results by other Seychelles athletes at the games.

In 200m K1, canoeist Tony Lespoir clocked 45.359 seconds in the preliminaries and 43.232 seconds in the semifinals. He did not progress to the final won by South African Chrisjan Coetzee in 34.091 seconds.

In volleyball, the women’s team finished sixth overall after losing 0-3 to Senegal in the playoffs after finishing last in the four-team group A with one win and two defeats.

In athletics, Iven Moïse clocked 15 minutes 02.28 seconds (15:02.28) in the 500m race won by Kenyan Moïse Kiprop in 13:30.96, Norris Bibi finished eighth out of 13 with a best effort of 2m in the men’s high jump won by South African Mpho Links (2.20m), Ned Azemia clocked 50,81 seconds in the 400m hurdles won by Algerian Adbelmalik Lahoulou in 49.08 seconds.

In weightlifting, Rick Confiance was ranked fifth in the men’s 73kg category with an Olympic total of 266kg (120kg in snatch and 146kg in clean and jerk). The three gold medal went to Tunisian Karem Ben HNia with a total of 333kg (153kg in snatch and 180kg in clean and jerk).

As for male weightlifter Steven Baccus he did not compete because of an injury.

Egypt overall winner

Egypt finished as the overall winner of the Games and broke the records regarding the number of the medals obtained, as they won a total of 273 medals, including 102 gold, 98 silver and 73 bronze.

This total is way better than the previous best of 217 medals the country won at the 11th African Games in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2015.

Nigeria finished second with 127 medals ‒ 46 gold, 33 silver and 48 bronze –, South Africa third with 87 medals – 36 gold, 26 silver and 25 bronze –, host Morocco fifth with 109 medals – 31 gold, 32 silver and 46 bronze –, Mauritius 8th with 24 medals – 6 gold, 6 silver and 12 bronze –, and Madagascar 10th with 12 medals – 6 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze.

Ghana will host the 13th African Games in 2023.

G. G.