A Seychellois Paralympics athlete, Gerry Theresine, received a new racing wheelchair on Thursday to better prepare for the upcoming Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Madagascar.

Theresine received the wheelchair from Seychelles' President Wavel Ramkalawan in a ceremony at State House, in the presence of his mother and representatives of the National Council for the Disabled and his coach from the Paralympic Association of Seychelles.

The 2023 IOIG are scheduled for August 23 to September 3 and will feature 17 sporting disciplines. 

The Paralympian is already training intensively for the competition that he said he took part in the last edition.

"I am happy with the wheelchair, which I believe will help me do better than the third place position I achieved in the last games," he said.

In the IOIG in Mauritius in 2019, Theresine won a bronze medal in athletics in the 1,500m wheelchair race. He clocked 6 hours 15 minutes 50 seconds to finish third behind Sperien Dovique of Madagascar in second place and the gold medal went to Cedric Ravet of Mauritius.

The Bromakin wheelchair that Theresine received was from a private donor. 

The President said, "We have established contacts necessary for the sport to continue developing here."

For the 11th Games scheduled to take place in Madagascar, the handisports athletes will once again form part of Seychelles' team and the athletes hope to improve on the performance they had in 2019. The athletes won 10 medals ‒ one gold, two silver and seven bronze.

The multi-sport event that takes place every four years for athletes from the Indian Ocean Islands, usually has Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar, Mayotte, Reunion and the Maldives as regular participants.