Samuel Sepeng (far right) with South Africa's medley relay at the Southern Region Youth Championships (© Lékip)
Ten of the fourteen countries that belong to the Southern African Region were present at the Maryse Justin Stadium this weekend.
Young athletes representing South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, the isle of Reunion, Madagascar, Swaziland, Lesotho, Comoros and the host country Mauritius competed in the Lékip Youth Championships.
Curiously South Africa’s strongest competitors were the middle distance runners most of whom were representing their nation for the first time internationally.
In the women’s 3000m South Africa swept all the medals with Irvette Van Blerk, Dim Praxedis, and Nanet Grobbelaar who offered a fantastic battle to the local crowd.
While Van Blerk was securing the gold medal, Praxedis was struggling into second and a few metres from the line collapsed to the floor. Grobbelaar was catching up quickly and would have grabbed silver hadn’t she stopped to encourage her compatriot to finish the race.
Physically supporting Praxedis, Grobbelaar let her friend cross the finish line in second and contended herself with a well deserved bronze medal.
“I will never forget what Nanet did for me today, I will be forever thankful,” said a very emotional Praxedis after the race.
Grobbelaar, who had won the 1500m gold medal the previous day, saw nothing extraordinary in her gesture and declared: “Dim is one of my best friends and I think she fully deserves the silver medal.”
In the men’s events, attention was all on Samuel Sepeng, younger brother of the more famous Hézekiel who won the 800m silver medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games.
Samuel was competing in the same event and curiously won the same colour medal as his older brother: silver. Sepeng came second behind compatriot Erwin Schmidt who was the pre-event favourite.
Schmidt had come to Mauritius with the ambition of meeting the qualifying standards for the IAAF World Junior Championships in Grosseto but unfortunately he failed.
“My race today was stupid,” he said after clocking a very disappointing 1:56.98. “I thought somebody would set the pace but no-one did so I was a bit lost. I only decided to accelerate 300 metres into the race but that was too late. It definitely wasn’t the best of me today.”
Despite Schmidt’s understandable disappointment, today’s gold medal was not such a bad start for his first ever international outing!
Reynolds Quirin for the IAAF
Results – Day Two (16 May)
Women
200m
Heat 1 (wind : 0,4 m/s)
1. Sefu Kegalalelo BOT 26.13 Q
2. Ingrid Labelle MRI 26.45 Q
3. Natifa Larue SEY 27.15 q
4. Noream Ralaimmitombo MAD 27.50
Heat 2 (wind : 0,1 m/s)
1. Leletso Rampadi BOT 26.22 Q
2. Héléne Andriot REU 26.37 Q
3. Doyana Jolicoeur MRI 26.94 q
4. Haniati Ali Darouèche COM 28.75
Nathanielle Cherry SEY DNS
Final (wind : 4,4 m/s)
1. Sefu Kagalalelo BOT 25.49
2. Leletso Rampadi BOT 25.79
3. Ingrid Labelle MRI 25.99
4. Hélène Andriot REU 26.09
5. Doyana Jolicoeur MRI 26.67
6. Natifa Larue SEY 26.83
800m
1. Morena Tshotlego BOT 2:09.86
2. Beatrice Chikepe ZIM 2:14.61
3. Recinda Hanekom RSA 2:14.83
4. Nelsy Ahrimann REU 2:21.81
5. Dlamini Temalangeni SWZ 2:23.90
6. Shanty Gaspard MRI 2:32.10
7. Anne-Valérie Cerveaux MRI 2:48.35
3000m
1. Irvette Van Blerk RSA 9:49.74
2. Dim Praxedis RSA 9:59.50
3. Nanet Grobbelaar RSA 9:59.60
4. Memello Putsoane LES 11:29.47
High Jump
1. Jenny Louis MRI 1,53m
2. Margaret Adrien MRI 1,53m
3. Alicia Lamusse MRI 1,50m
Long Jump
1. Samkeliso Sithole ZIM 5,13m (+2,3)
2. Margaret Adrien MRI 4,89m (-1,0)
3. Nthabeleng Tlali LES 4,76m (+3,6)
4. Doyana Jolicoeur MRI 4,64m (+3,6)
5. Séphora Paul MRI 4,19m (+0,4)
Discus
1. Samukeliso Sithole ZIM 30,16m
2. Laura Mohun MRI 29,35m
3. Annabelle Fabre MRI 29,14m
4. Anissa Uzice SEY 26,71m
5. Marcia Stewart SWZ 25,74m
Medley Relay
1. Botswana BOT 2:16.22
Sefu Kagalalelo
Rampedi Leletdo
Nakedi Botlhe
Morama Tshotlego
2. Maurice MRI 2:20.79
Doyana Jolicoeur
Ingrid Labelle
Shanty Gaspard
Sarah Jane Gujadhur
3. Afrique du Sud RSA 2:33.03
Recinda Hanekom
Nanet Grobbelaar
Dim Praxedis
Irvette Van Blerk
Men
200m
Heat 1 (wind : 1,8 m/s)
1. Molefi Kaone BOT 22.31 Q
2. Yannick Momplé MRI 22.50 Q
3. Renaud Nelson SEY 23.17 q
4. Kamil Hakim COM 24.38
Heat 2 (wind : -0,3 m/s)
1. Mervin Loizeau SEY 22.68 Q
2. David Blais MRI 23.04 Q
3. Tavondray Tsitohatsy MAD 23.04 q
4. Omar Aboussoir COM 24.42
Final (wind : 3,3 m/s)
1. Kaone Molefi BOT 22.05
2. Mervin Loizeau SEY 22.12
3. Yannick Momplé MRI 22.69
4. David Blais MRI 22.72
5. Renaud Nelson SEY 23.15
6. Tavondray Tsitohatsy MAD 23.28
400m hurdles
1. Emmanuel Khadun MRI 58.90
2. Fabrice Pointu MRI 61.60
800m
1. Erwin Schmidt RSA 1:56.98
2. Samuel Sepeng RSA 1:57.79
3. Levison Mapfuwa ZIM 1:58.43
4. Moshe Ramogapebi BOT 2:00.38
5. Théophile Joanarison MAD 2:02.19
6. Olivier Baptiste MRI 2:05.21
7. Kersley Bru MRI 2:12.72
8. Denis Rose SEY 2:18.07
3000m
1. Setone Tsamako RSA 8:37.64
2. Patrick Magadla RSA 8:52.32
3. Khoza Siyaya RSA 9:12.13
4. Remy Ganne REU 9:20.92
5. David Carver MRI 9:23.54
6. Julien Niven MRI 12:13.60
Pole Vault
1. Shaning Gurcharan MRI 4,20m
2. Delvin Chinapyel MRI 3,20m
3. Ian Thierry MRI 2,20m
Long Jump
1. Jean-Daniel Legrès REU 6,83 (-1,3)
2. Clément emilien MRI 6,44m (+5,1)
3. Hugues Nancy MRI 6,37m (+5,5)
4. Etienne Hezron SEY 606m (+9,0)
Shot Put
1. Sylvain Pierre-Louis MRI 14,69m
2. Jean-Noël Lagarde MRI 13,30m
3. Rykesh Tooseea MRI 13,06m
Discus
1. Sébastien Lamy MRI 39,02m
2. Jean-Noël Lagarde MRI 38,62m
5000m Walk
1. Bruno Belombre MRI 26:04.29
2. Didier Joseph MRI 27:50.77
3. Gilbert Jamalkhan MRI 29:34.51
Medley Relay
1. Afrique du Sud RSA 2:02.34
Erwin Schmidt
Samuel Sepeng
Siyaya Khoza
Yan Masenemela
2. Seychelles SEY 2:05.94
Denis Rose
Renaud Nelson
Mervin Loizeau
Etienne Hezron
3. Réunion REU 2:07.44
David Grondin
Yn Palcro
Kevin Chaffre
Jean-Daniel Legrès
Maurice MRI DNF
Delvin Chinapyel
David Blais
Kersley Bru
Hugues Nancy
Invitational events
Women
800m
1. Natacha Monique MRI 2:17.25
2. Anabelle Lascar MRI 2:17.55
3. Diana Lacariate MRI 2:30.25
4. Karen Lacharmante MRI 2:54.01
Karina Jules MRI DNS
Discus
1. Corinne Remillah MRI 33,75m
Men
400m
Heat 1
1. Jean-François Degrâce MRI 48.87
2. Thierry Xavier MRI 49.34
3. Travis Morel SEY 51.31
4. Krishen Veeraragoo MRI 51.86
5. Samuel Sagor MRI 54.39
Evans Marie SEY DNS
Heat 2
1. Charles Marie MRI 52.38
2. David Mortimerdo MRI 52.77
3. Danillo Collin MRI 53.27
4. Evans Oodiah MRI 53.55
Dominique Para MRI DNS
1500m
1. Westley Tauckoory MRI 4:02.18
2. Francis Manon MRI 4:05.30
3. Alberinos Rabearisoa MAD 4:06.56
4. Sanjeeva Sooriah MRI 4:23.57
5. Hansely Tuyau MRI 4:30.65
6. Nitin Lallsing MRI 4:34.24
Christophe Marina MRI DNF
400m hurdles
1. Antonio Vieillesse MRI 57.37
2. Miguel Azie MRI 59.87
Pole Vault
1. Christophe Tima REU 4,40m
Long Jump
1. Didier Dorby REU 6,98m (+3,6)
2. Manuel Valin REU 6,69m (+1,9)
3. Jean-Francois Lamarque MRI 6,15m (+1,1)
Adhume Mouslim MAY DNS
Discus
1. Elvino Pierre-Louis MRI 44,53m
2. Jean-Paul Deboucherville MRI 38,74m
