Karate medal mishap: David Boniface wrongly bypassed as Comorian receives his bronze |01 September 2023

David Boniface receiving his kumite -84kg category bronze medal from Papa Ismaila, chairman of the Union of African Karate Federations (Photo: Patrick Joubert)

On the first day of the karate competition of the 11th Indian Ocean Islands Games Team Seychelles claimed three bronze medals, but their exploits were overshadowed with a medal mishap which robbed’ David Boniface of his deserved podium honour.

The competition took place at the Mahamasina Gymnasium and all three medals were won in kumite by Stephanie De Létourdie in the +68kg category, David Boniface in the -84 kg category and Selwyn Payet in the +84 kg category.

While De Létourdie and Payet were duly honoured with their medals during the official medals presentation ceremony, Boniface endured an unfortunate episode. He found himself waiting for nearly 40 minutes before receiving his medal, which was presented to him by Papa Ismaila, the chairman of the Union of African Karate Federations.

This delay was due to an egregious mistake: Boniface's third-place medal in the category had been mistakenly awarded to Comorian Moigani Hadaffi who had lost twice to Boniface who beat him on points (8-5) and to Mauritian Kreetish Venkataswam in the pool of three fighters.

After a protest by the Seychelles karate team entourage, which was rejected at first and followed by a long dispute to rectify the error, an understandably down and disappointed Boniface was finally presented with his medal away from the limelight of the ceremonial presentation, off the podium.

In Boniface's own words, “I am very disappointed. I worked hard to be here and I feel I do not deserve to be treated in this manner when you consider that they took so long to recognise that I was the bronze medallist after having rejected in the first place that I was the official person for the medal. They did not award me my points in the match against the Mauritian which would have seen me in the final and followed by this situation, it’s inexplicable. Anyway, many unusual things happen in sports and I take it as one of those that has happened to me. My intention was to win the gold medal and I got the bronze, I am happy.”

Speaking to Seychelles NATION, Papa Ismaila, chairman of the Union of African Karate Federations, conveyed his apology for the error on the part of the officials and said Boniface’s third position will be officially announced in today’s competition.

In the -84kg group 1 category, Boniface lost his first fight to Venkataswam but managed to get a win in his second fight against Hadaffi on the score of 8-5. Boniface could have made it to the final had he not received the last warning in the dying six seconds to win the fight when he was leading 5-4 on the scoreboard in the first fight. With a total of four warnings the victory was passed over to Venkataswami who qualified for the final after his second win against Hadaffi. The gold medal for this category was won by Patrick Fenosoa from Madagascar.

Fighting in the +84kg category of two fighters, Payet lost to Abishek Ramlucmun from Mauritius on a score of 8-0 in his first fight and qualified for the bronze medal.

De Létourdie, competing in the +68kg category, lost 0-8 to Aurore Pillant from Reunion but she qualified for the bronze given they were only two in the pool. The gold medal was won by Nancy Ravahamanantsoa of Madagascar who beat Pillantin the final.

Another fighter in the kumite was Wayne Louise who fought in the -75kg category. He lost both his fights to Jean Raherimahalieo of Madagascar and Rama Ayad of Mayotte. The gold medal was won by Jean Raherimahaleo from Madagascar who beat Paulo Sullivan in the final.

Competing in the women’s kumite -68 kg category, Chettiar Sujatha lost both her fights 2-7 to Allysia Valeran from Mauritius and 0-3 to Touli Taliane from Mayotte. The gold medal was won by Jessica Raboanaritompo from Madagascar who beat Taliane in the final.

The competition started with the individual women’s kata elimination round and Gretel Valentin lost to Ludivine Zitambi. In the men’s kata elimination round, Bernard Theresine lost to Rock Baronne from Reunion. The individual kata competition will continue tomorrow.

For the team kata, Valentin, De Létourdie and Chettiar lost to Reunion. They scored 21.3 points compared to 22.5 points for the Reunionnais.

“The competition is more or less OK, but there are a few irregularities that keep coming up and it looks like those in charge are not happy when you bring them forward. What happened to David (Boniface) was not nice at all, further than that he did not lose his fight. The team’s performance is not so bad and had some of them listened to instructions given, we would have performed better. Some have even come to acknowledge that. I have told them that we are not here to gather experience but to compete. We hope to arrange things tonight (last night) and come out and do better tomorrow (today),” said coach Allen Joubert.

Patrick Joubert