Interview with Seychelles Tennis Association chairperson Fatim Kanté |27 May 2020
Chairperson Kanté watching a training session
‘We plan to have our usual calendar’
After local tennis enthusiasts started training at the Roche Caïman courts on Monday, Seychelles Tennis Association chairperson Fatim Kanté has told Sports NATION that they plan to have a normal season despite the delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Revised competition schedule
Ms Kanté said that they will definitely have to make certain adjustments so as to complete their full calendar of competitions for the 2020 season by the end of the year.
“Our calendar will remain the same where we have about five competitions for the seniors and where the juniors players can participate and we are aiming to have two competitions per month as from July or August so that we can complete all our competitions by December. We also organise the STA Monthly Open for the junior players. As for our season, we already begun with our season opener which was sponsored by Land Marine and we had a good turnout with 40 male players and 15 ladies,” said Seychelles Tennis Association (STA) chairperson Kanté.
Resumption of training
Ms Kanté also revealed that they have been given the green light by the National Sports Council (NSC) to use the facilities at Roche Caïman to resume training this week and she says that the players must make the most of this opportunity to get back on the court.
“We are happy that permission has been granted for us to use the court for training and the Roche Caïman facility will be open from 9am to 7pm on weekdays, so we want the players to plan their training time as we also use the court for training for the junior tennis programme from 3pm to 5.30pm. Nonetheless, we do not know if the courts will be open during the weekends. The association has also appointed a member of the federation for each day to oversee the training so as to ensure that all our activities are done in accordance with the health guidelines and we have also laid down our own measures to ensure social distancing is respected such as there should be only five players on each court at any one time,” claimed chairperson Kanté.
Youth programme
The former number one player locally also spoke about her federation’s youth development programme which she feels is on the right track under the guidance of their foreign coach, Tanzanian Nicolaus Leringa.
“We have a very good development programme for players in the 5-18 years age group where they benefit from training from our foreign coach who has been here for two years. Even though we advertised the post in an attempt to recruit a local coach we did not receive any interest so we decided to extend coach Leringa’s contract for another year and he is assisted by Marcus Maria and another coach, Marie May Isnard, also helps out with these youngsters,” Ms Kanté said.
International commitment
On the issue of foreign competitions and their foreign based star player Damien Laporte, Ms Kanté is hopeful they can soon get back to normal in the coming months.
“We had a busy international schedule. Ariel Horpinitch was to play in Togo where I was to accompany her in April and we had other tournaments organised by the Confédération Africaine de tennis (Cat) for the different age categories which we had earmarked to take part in, but we just have to wait for the rescheduled tournaments,” chairperson Kanté related to Sports NATION.
As for the placement of the best tennis player and Young Male Athlete of the Year 2019 Damien Laporte, Ms Kanté is keen for the youngster to be given all the support to further develop his potential and is also appealing for financial support to help maintain his tutelage in Spain.
“It is important that we give our bright talent and all our other players who have potential the best support we can to ensure their development and in the case of Damien (Laporte), we want him to complete his studies and training at the Sanchez Casal Tennis Academy in Spain for another year before he moves to university the following year. At this point, it is worth noting the big help we receive from NSC and the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga) which we really appreciate to finance his time in Spain which is quite costly and the association hopes he can continue to be supported,” suggested Ms Kanté.
Target for the year
The STA chairperson said she is looking forward for the competitions to get started once again and added that she is hoping they can keep counting on the backing of their faithful sponsors for the season.
“We would like to restart with the Kia Motors tournament though we have to discuss with our sponsors. This season we want to eradicate walkovers in our competitions, so we want players to commit themselves as if we see that we do not have enough participants, we will call off these competitions. Our target is to increase the number of female players and we hope we can maintain our sponsorship partners but if we do not get this assistance, STA will finance the competitions. Nonetheless, Julie Fayon is willing to sponsor one competition this season for which the association is really grateful as we aim for a very successful 2020 season,” chairperson Kanté said in conclusion.
R. J-L.
