Seychelles wins 14 medals at Southern African swimming event

Seychelles’ relay team established a new record for the championship clocking 1 minute 37.10 seconds. (Seychelles Swimming Association)

(Seychelles News Agency) – Seychelles won 14 medals — six gold, four silver and four bronze — and set a new championship record at the CANA Zone IV Championship 2022, the Southern African competition organised by the Africa Swimming Confederation in Lusaka, Zambia recently.

Seychelles’ relay team made up of Joshua Miller, Alain Vidot, Adam Moncherry and Tyler Fred established a new record for the championship clocking 1 minute 37.10 seconds. The team beat Mauritius’ record time of 1 minute 37.83 set in 2016.

Miller won another gold in the 200 m breaststroke for men in the 17-19 years old category and set a new national record of 2 minutes 28.85 seconds. Fred also won another gold medal for the 100m backstroke for men of 17 to 19 years while two gold medals also went to Damien Payet in the 5 km open water event and the 800 m freestyle for men of 17-19 years.

Tyler Fred said he was very proud of his performance “as it was not easy to compete at over 1,400m above sea level, which meant that during the first day we were all struggling, but we pushed through.”

Miller set a new national record of 2 minutes 28.85 seconds in the 200 m breaststroke. (Seychelles Swimming Association)

Another member of the relay team, Alain Vidot, who also won a bronze medal during the championship, said, “It was a tough competition, especially I had to race at two competitions back-to-back and so it was really great for me to actually win some medals after not winning anything for a while.”

Therese Soukoup was the only female gold medallist for Seychelles at the competition, who came out first in the 800m freestyle for women of 15 to 24 years. Soukoup also won two silver and one bronze medals.

“I was actually very surprised to come out with four medals as I went there not expecting to win anything, but I am very happy and proud to represent my country,” she said.

Overall, Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, finished 11th with 496.50 points with the boy’s team ranking 10th with 328 points and the girls’ team ranked 12th with 168 points.

This was a great performance for the island nation’s swimming team which was without its star swimmer Felicity Passon, who is currently on overseas training.