From our readers after a fruitful day of competition |20 July 2019
From left to right: Lydvine Passon, Neil Passon, Felicity Passon and Charlotte Passon
The swimmers made us proud
Seychelles NATION contacted the parents of Seychelles’ first gold medallist at the ongoing 10th Indian Ocean Island Games’ and 50m freestyle record breaker Felicity Passon immediately after they landed in Mauritius yesterday.
They missed the event but were happy to learn of the ‘best news ever’ and Felicity’s mum Lydvine Passon shared her joy with us:
“We landed in Mauritius to hear this wonderful news, but sadly we missed the event because of a change in the time of our flight. We are over the moon to know Felicity made Seychelles proud in such an impressive manner... winning the first gold of the Games and breaking the Games record. She works really hard and still loves her swimming very much though it goes without saying that we miss her being with us at home due to her chasing her goal. We love you Felicity. Ale Sesel!” said Mrs Passon.
Former Seychelles swimmer Jean-Paul Adam, who is now the Health Minister, said: “I am really proud and I know that swimming as a sport requires a lot of discipline, hard work and determination. The Indian Ocean Island Games is very important for those who are currently participating in the games and who made that effort to be qualified. During these Games you feel really proud that you are able to compete with the best in the region. I congratulate Felicity and Samuele for their gold medals and I also congratulate the other medallists for their efforts. Seychelles is the smallest country in the Indian Ocean and seeing the performance from our athletes make us all proud today. For the coming days, I wish all the athletes to have a positive mind and have faith as all the preparation they did is the result of their participation in these Games. We have faith in you all and when we see you all swimming, we are proud. We are happy to see that Seychelles is being well represented.”
A former swimmer, Joel Bacco, who also took part in the IOIG, was delighted with the results. “Felicity Passon, Samuele Rossi and Mathieu Bachmann all registered new records. The performance of Simon Bachmann and Therese Soukup also was amazing. Technically, we have a good team with lots of potential. We can see the results when we invest in our athletes. Felicity and Samuele have been able to train outside Seychelles and I am in favour of this. The more we expose our athletes, the more confident they will be. I hope they will continue with their training after the Games.”
V. G.