Swimming: FINA World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships |17 August 2022
Mr Alcindor giving details during yesterday’s press conference
Everything is on the right track confirms steering committee
All preparations are going according to plan and Seychelles will be ready to host the Fédération internationale de natation World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships between September 16-18 the steering committee has confirmed.
Committee member Alain Alcindor gave the reassurance yesterday, during a press conference to give the latest updates on the preparation for the event which will take place at Beau Vallon, gathering over 300 delegates, including swimmers, coaches and officials from around the world, including Seychelles.
Also present at yesterday’s press conference were Principal Secretary for Youth and Sports Ralph Jean-Louis, Principal Secretary for Tourism Sherin Francis, steering committee member Suketu Patel and Fédération internationale de notation (Fina) representative on the steering committee Raymond Hack.
Other members of the committee are chairman of the Seychelles Swimming Association (SWA) David Vidot and chief executive of the National Sports Council (NSC) Jean Larue.
The four-day competition will consist of 5km (14-15 years), 7.5km (16-17 years), and 10km (18-19 years) individual events for boys and girls, while a mixed-team event consisting of two athletes from each gender completing a 5km course (4x1.25km) will conclude the event.
The mixed-gender Team Event is a 3 km open water swimming relay comprising of 3 swimmers, either 2 boys and one girl or two girls and 1 boy.
For the Team Event, swimmers can "swim up"; that is, a maximum of swimmers from the 14-16 age category can swim in the 17-18 age group category with one team per federation.
Contract agreement to host the event was signed in February this year, before the organising and steering committees were set up.
According to Mr Alcindor, all aspects are being presently handled, including accommodation, 281 delegates, including athletes and officials, excluding Team Seychelles.
He said the technical committee is made up of more or less staff of the National Sports Council (NSC) to cut on expenses, along with the Tourism department, and consultant Marie-France Watson
As for the safety aspect of the competition, the task will once again fall on the group which handled the issue during the two previous Marathon Swim World Series events hosted locally, headed by captain Joachim Valmont.
The inaugural World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships took place in Welland, Canada in 2012. Subsequent event editions took place in Balatonfured, Hungary in 2014, Hoorn, the Netherlands in 2016 and Eilat, Israel in 2018, while the 2020 event was set to take place in Seychelles but was postponed due to the global pandemic.
Roland Duval
Photo Credit: Vanessa Lucas-Tourism Department