Weightlifting wins most of Seychelles gold medals so far at the IOIG in Reunion

Sport |Author: Sharon Uranie | August 7, 2015, Friday @ 11:57| 4744 views

Weightlifter Steven Baccus proudly raise the Seychelles flag after winning triple gold at the IOIG on Thursday. (Patrick Joubert, Seychelles Nation)

(Seychelles News Agency) - After a slow start in bringing in medals at the 9^th Indian Ocean Island Games, IOIG, in Reunion, Seychelles athletes have been chasing more spots on the podium over the last two days.

Weightlifting proved to be a strong force once more on Thursday as two more lifters won triple gold medals in their respective categories.

Janet Georges and Steven Baccus have followed in the footsteps of Clementina Agricole and Ruby Malvina who achieved the same feat on Wednesday.

Georges who is participating in her fourth IOIG, having competed in the regional games in 2003 in Mauritius, 2007 in Madagascar and 2011 on home territory lifted a total weight of 190kg, which was 44kg more than that lifted by her closest opponent from Madagascar in the 75kg category.

It's Georges’ 85 kg lift in snatch and 105kg in clean and jerk that earned her the 190kg total which was more than enough to win her triple gold.

According to an article published today in daily newspaper Seychelles Nation, the Seychellois lifter believed she could have lifted more but only lifted her way to the gold medal as there was not much competition.

“The competition was easy actually and I was only trying to beat my own record, but I figured it is already my record so there was no rush for me to beat it,” said Georges in the article.

Competing alongside Georges in the same 75kg category another Seychellois lifter Brenda Lozaique won silver in snatch and two bronze medals in clean and jerk and for her total lift of 146kg respectively.

The male weightlifters also did thei share to make Seychelles proud on Thursday as Steven Baccus who was competing in his fifth IOIG also won tripple gold.

Baccus lifted 135kg in snatch, 170kg in clean and jerk to achieve a grand total lift of 350kg emerging as the winner of the -94kg category becoming the first male Seychellois athlete to win gold at the Reunion games.

A Mauritian lifter managed to win the silver while a Madagascan won the category’s bronze medal.

“For my fifth IOIG I can say I am really proud as I have now won 15 gold medals at these games, which makes me undefeated,” Baccus told Seychelles Nation.

Weightlifting claimed another three silver medals yesterday which went to Terrence Dixie in the 85kg category.

Three other Seychellois lifters are expected to perform today on the last day of competitions for weightlifting.

The Indian Ocean archipelago’s three other gold medals on Thursday came in swimming and athletics.

Alexus Laird who earned Seychelles first gold in the discipline on Wednesday did it again as she swam the 100-metre backstroke event in 1 minute 03.52 seconds which is also an IOIG record and a new national record for the country.

Laird is confident of bringing in more medals with three more races left for her at the IOIG. Her Seychellois opponent in the 100-metre backstroke race on Thursday, Felicity Passon took third place winning a bronze medal.

Passon also competed in the 100-metre butterfly race where she managed to come out second behind a swimmer from the host country to win the silver medal. She clocked 1 minute 02.67 seconds which is also a new Seychelles record.

For the male swimmers Steven Mangroo came in with the third fastest time in the 400-metre freestyle race and then teamed up with Adrian Nanty, Dean Hoffman and Adam Viktora to win another bronze medal in the 4x100 metre relay.

In athletics, as she had already predicted Seychelles first gold medalist at the 9^th IOIG in high jump Lissa Labiche won a second gold medal this time in long jump with a 6.26 metre jump which is also an IOIG record.

All other medals in athletics events on Thursday were on the men’s side. Jude Sidonie led the way winning gold in high jump clearing the bar at 2.05 metres followed not too far behind my Norris Brioche who jumped the bar at 1.91 metres winning Seychelles a bronze medal in the same competition.

The island nation also managed to win a silver medal in the 4 x 400-metre relay race and a bronze medal in the adapted 800-metre race.

In other sports, Seychelles women’s football team did not manage to reach the finals after losing in the semi-finals 8-2 against Madagascar.

In volleyball, however, the Seychelles men’s team will attempt to retain its title as it plays in the finals this evening. The Seychellois players won their semifinal match 3-0 against Mauritius.

After the sixth day of competitions on Thursday, Seychelles was still placed fourth on the medals table with a total of 52 medals, 17 gold, 15 silver and 20 bronze medals while Reunion, the host nation is still in the lead with a total of 127 medals.

This means Seychelles is still far from reaching its harvest achieved on home territory during the last games in 2011, where a total of 123 medals were won, including 57 gold medals.

The Medal Table at the end of the sixth day of competitions at the 9th IOIG in Reunion