With the aim of helping Seychelles achieve good results in international sports competitions, a group of Seychelles honorary consuls from Europe made a donation of various sports equipment on Friday.

The donation was presented to the respective sports federation in a small ceremony held at the sports ministry headquarters at Family House, Bel Eau.

Keesjan Rietveld, the Honorary Consul for The Netherlands, said, “We decided to come together to make this donation, where we hope it will contribute to the country achieving great results on the international stage.” 

The sports that will benefit from the equipment include football, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, hockey, handball and boxing, all disciplines that will be part of the upcoming Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Madagascar next year.  

The equipment will be used as Seychellois sportsmen prepare for the IOIG and also in the development of local sports programmes.

“Your donation might seem small, but to a small nation like Seychelles, this will make a big impact on these sports,” said Marie-Celine Zialor, the sports minister.

The donations were made to the representatives of the respective federations from the honorary consuls of Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, Luxembourg and Bulgaria.

The consuls were in Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, to attend a conference aimed at exploring opportunities to bring additional benefits in various areas of national importance, as representatives of the country overseas.  

The Seychelles Football Federation will also benefit from a separate donation in the future. This will include coaching software that will enable training sessions to be fully automated thus allowing coaches more time to analyse players and help improve training plans.

“As you know, Seychelles has set a target of winning an Olympic medal and such help will greatly boost our chances, where we hope to become an inspiration to other small nations or underdogs like us,” added Zialor.

Seychelles, a small island nation of around 100,000 people, has never won an Olympic medal but is hoping to achieve this feat in the 2028 games.

Source: Seychelles News Agency