Community, leisure and sports for all: Mahé Crazy Challenge 2023 |07 December 2023
The winners in a family photo with Messrs Arissol and Remie and the Scoba executive committee members
Winners receive their awards
- Scoba gets full responsibility to host recreational and adventurous activities
As of next year, the Seychelles Challenge and Outward Bounds Association will assume the responsibility of hosting local recreational and adventurous activities, with continuous support from the National Sports Council, chief executive Marc Arissol has announced.
He was speaking during the award ceremony for this year’s Mahé Crazy Challenge held yesterday at Stad Linite Roche Caïman.
Launched in September 2021, the Seychelles Challenge and Outward Bounds Association (Scoba) has been functioning under the umbrella of the National Sports Council (NSC), precisely the community, leisure and sports for all unit, as part of its induction programme – under the guidance of unit director Francis Remie – before catering for most of the outdoor activities, as from next year.
As part of its mandate, the Scoba will also promote camping and recreational activities, local heritage through nature walk, as well as promote coastal exploration through various activities including kayaking and boating.
Its executive committee is made up of Andrew Paul (chairperson), Vivienne Vadivello (vice-chairperson), Christianne Commettant (secretary), Samantha William (treasurer), Jude Francourt (logistics), Mary-Joe Joubert (marketing and promotion) and Raymond Florentine (trail manager).
Mr Arissol vouched NSC’s continuous support towards Scoba, mainly financially, adding that a memorandum of understanding between the association and the Seychelles Athletics Federation (SAF) will soon be signed, opening more doors for Scoba, offering more national support, while agreements with international outdoor organisations are also on next year’s programme, offering more avenues for exchanges and growth.
For this year’s Mahé Crazy Challenge, 29 participants – 19 men and 10 women – were on the starting line.
In the men’s competition, Geno Belle was the grand winner, clocking ten hours, four minutes and 35 seconds (10h04:35) to clinch his third title after winning in 2016 and 2019.
Last year’s winner, Noah Chilinda, has been relegated in to the runner-up spot with a chrono of 10hr10:45, while
Yannick Anacoura finished third overall in 10hr4:27, in front of Sisira Kumara who finished fourth in 10hr23:37, and Keven Larue who clocked 10hr50:42 to finish fifth overall.
In the women’s challenge, the new record belongs to Caroline Sebert who finished first in 10hr28:06, replacing Pene Vogt’s old record of 11hr41:44 set in 2017.
Aisha Radwan was the runner-up, finishing in 11hr20:23, ahead of third-placed Brenda Larue who was last year’s winner.
Vanessa Sinon finished fourth overall, after clocking 12hr46:45, while Annita Amasogno was fifth overall in 12hr47:00
For this year’s challenge, the winners pocketed R5000, while the runners-up received R4000.
Third-place finishers took home R3000, with R2000 for those finishing fourth, and R1500 for fifth-place finishers.
All the cash prizes have been sponsored by the NSC, while Cable and Wireless provided goodie bags for the winners.
First organised in 2004, the challenge’s first winner was Philip Louange who clocked 14hours and 30minutes (14h30).
After different times were registered during the following challenges, it was in 2012 that James Barra set a new record – 8h52:09 – which is yet to be broken.
In the women’s category, until Saturday, the event’s record – 11h41:44 – belonged to Vogt, set in 2017, breaking that of the late Simone Jaffa – 12h23:56 – set in 2010.
Roland Duval
