Athletics: The Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Junior Championships |09 May 2023

No podium finish for our young athletes

Although our young athletes who took part at the Confederation of African Athletics African Junior Championship which took take place at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola, Zambia from April 29 to May 3 could not manage any podium finish, they however showed signs of improvements with Don Wirtz matching his personal best in the hammer throw event.

Other than Wirtz, Seychelles was being represented at the championships by Dickson Suzette, Gael Barreau, Jerrold Alexis, Neil Azemia and Liam Barbe who were being accompanied by coaches Joseph Volcy and Joseph Adam.

The African Junior Athletics Championships are a biennial continental athletics event for junior athletes from African nations.

Only athletes aged 19 or under are allowed to compete at the event organised by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) and first held in 1994.

It was the third continental athletics competition to be created for that age level, following in the steps of the South American and Oceania events.

Its proposal, coming at a similar time as that for the European Athletics Youth Championships, marked a growing interest in international competition for younger people.

In hammer, Wirtz threw the metallic object a distance of 51.38m, matching his personal best, to finish sixth overall.

In the 100m, Suzette who competed in heat number three, finished fifth in 11.03 seconds, while Barreau finished sixth in heat number five with a time of 12.13 seconds.

Neil Azemia competed in heat number three of the 400m and he clocked 49.05 seconds to finish sixth, while in the 200m heat number three, Alexis also finished sixth after clocking 22.30 seconds.

In high jump, Barbé managed to clear the bar at 1.90m, earning him a sixth-place overall finish.

Roland Duval