Swimming: Mauritius Summer National Championships 2019 |18 December 2019
The Mahé Skimmers swimmers upon their return home yesterday
30 medals for Mahé Skimmers at regional competition
Thirty medals is the total count of the Mahé Skimmers Sports Club at the recently held Mauritius Summer National Championships which took place from December 12-15 at the Pavilion Swimming Pool in Quatre Bornes.
Mahé Skimmers were being represented by 10 swimmers who were competing under the guidance of experienced coach Barnsley Albert.
They brought home 18 gold, eight silver and four bronze medals.
The superstar of the team at the tournament was Alexander Payet who won eight gold and two silver medals.
Payet won the gold medals in 50m and 100m butterfly, 50m backstroke, 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, 200m individual medley and 50m breaststroke, while his silver medals came in the 100m and 200m breaststroke.
Liliana Mason also put up an extraordinary performance at the championship, bringing home seven gold and two silver medals.
Mason’s gold medals were in 50m, 100m, 400m and 800m freestyle, 100m and 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley.
Her two silver medals were in 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke.
In the 200m breaststroke, Mason’s time of 2 minutes 58.90 seconds (2:58.90) is believed to be a new national record, but the time remains to be homologated by the Seychelles Swimming Association (SSA).
Her performance betters the old time belonging to Julie Low-Thion – 3:01.87 – set in December 2001.
Mahé Skimmers’ other medals were courtesy of Lorenzo Grasseli-Barni – three gold (400m and 1500m freestyle, 200m butterfly) – two silver (100m and 200m butterfly), Tejasvi Kerai – three silver (400m and 800m freestyle, 100m butterfly) – two bronze (50m freestyle and 200m butterfly) and Yves Fock-Heng – one silver (200m backstroke) – two bronze (50m and 100m backstroke).
Seychelles was also being represented at the championship by 20 swimmers of the Aquafins Swimming Club but we could not get hold of their results by the time of going to press.
Coach Barnsley Albert’s reaction: “Firstly, the competition was a very high level and our swimmers have really fought to overcome the Mauritians as the level of swimming in Mauritius is really high. In general, I am very happy with my swimmers’ performances as I got 100 percent personal best times. My vision and strategy is to try and overcome Mauritius by the next Indian Ocean Island Games in 2023.”
Roland Duval