Athletics - National Inter-School Athletics Championships cancelled |05 May 2020
Action from a previous championships. This year’s event has been postponed and this is a wise decision by the education ministry as the championships bring together more than 4,000 people
The National Inter-School Athletics Championships which are an annual national event have been cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Early childhood, primary and secondary education principal secretary Odile Decommarmond has confirmed to Sports NATION that the 44th National Inter-School Athletics Championships have been called off and will now take place next year.
This is a result of the long break due to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the department of health to order the closure of all educational establishments since March 16 as a prevention measure to avoid the spread of the disease.
There was always a major doubt if this event, which brings together over 1,100 athletes from all public and private schools from Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, would take place as the organisers were unable to hold the heats which were scheduled for late March and early April.
This is because the country was under semi-lockdown and there was restriction of movement and banning of all public gathering including sports activities.
In fact, the heats for secondary and post-secondary schools were supposed to take place on March 31 whereas the elimination events for all primary schools on Mahé were to be held on April 1. As for schools from the inner islands, the heats were scheduled for April 17 – the day schools were going to break off for the three-week April vacation, but all these events were called off which made the proposed date of the grand finals set for June 13 quite a difficult deadline.
It takes quite some time to prepare and run the heats and finally for the athletes to prepare for this prestigious event on the schools yearly extra-curricular calendar.
In last year’s 43rd championships, only seven championship records were shattered, the count was two less than the previous year’s total (2018), which was nine.
The record breakers were:
- Runa Didon: Girls’ under-10 60m mini hurdles record in 10.8 seconds
- Janessa Nourice: Girls’ under-8 80m in 12.80 seconds
- Grand Anse Praslin: Girls’ under-12 4x100 relay team of Laurie Athanase, Shania Bresson, Geesha Capricieuse, Lyza Monnaie, Megan Pierre and Jerla Pouponneau with 57.93 seconds.
- Joshua Onezime: Boys’ under-18 high jump with 2.01m
- Shakira Joubert: Girls’ under-18 200m in 25.90 seconds
- Denzel Adam: Boys’ open 200m in 21.78 seconds
- Daryl Hibonne: Boys’ open 1500m in 4:29.98.
La Digue primary and Anse Royale secondary retained their silverwares as best schools, while the Seychelles Tourism Academy was the new professional centre champion, dethroning the Seychelles Institute of Technology.
La Digue primary garnered a grand total of 160 points to win the title for a fourth year running, while a grand total of 280 points ensured the secondary overall best trophy once more made the trip to Anse Royale for the eighth consecutive year.
In the professional centres category, the Seychelles Tourism Academy (STA) accumulated 132 points to dethrone 2018 winner the Seychelles Institute of Technology (SIT).
The decision by the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development to postpone the championships is a wise one especially bearing in mind that such a national event brings together around 4,000 people including athletes and officials, student supporters and the general public to watch the young athletes in our country display their talent.
R. J-L.
