Allen Julie made it to Rio Olympics
Julie qualifies for his fifth Olympics Games by qualifying in the fin category.
It's all smiles for Allen Julie after qualifying for his 5th Olympic Games.
It’s all joy once again for sailor Allen Julie as he will be heading for Rio Brazil in August for a record fifth Olympic participation for the Seychellois athlete at the world's premiere sports game.
Julie made true his promise to make it to another Olympic games by securing the last African Olympic spot at the 47th Princess Sofia Trophy championship which was also the last Rio 2016 continental qualifiers, in Palmas Spain.
Whereas his previous four Olympics were in the laser category, this time Julie qualified in the Fin category which is a completely new boat and event for him. In fact he has only started sailing in the Fin boat last month and to qualify for the Olympics is truly a very remarkable feat for the Seychelles record Olympian.
In Palmas, Julie’s main opponent was Tunisian Karim Esseghir as other athletes from the African continent, mainly from Egypt, Algeria and South Africa did not take part in the championship. And Julie beat the Algerian in all nine races to finish in 56 place overall with a total of 526 points out of 74 participants in the fin category, whilst Esseghir finished in 69 place with 686 points.
Allen Julie thus becomes the fourth Seychellois to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio and the third in water sports. The others to have made it are Rodney Govinden in laser, Jean- Marc Gardette in windsurfing and boxer Andrique Alissop. Canoeist Tony Lespoir is also trying to qualify for the games and he is currently taking part in the African championship which is also a qualifying event, in South Africa.
Source: Today.sc 4-4-16