Trois mois depuis son départ pour le High Performance Centre de Pretoria en Afrique du Sud, la nageuse Mélissa Vincent a trouvé ses marques. Elle serait sur la bonne voie, selon les dires de ses entraîneurs. Si son objectif à court terme demeure les Championnats d?Afrique seniors cette année, son coach Rocco Meiring pense qu?elle a le potentiel pour réaliser les minima B pour les Jeux olympiques de 2008 à Beijing.

« Melissa trains with a senior sprint group focusing on Freestyle & Butterfly. She shows great promise in the free & fly events and adds a lot of enthusiasm and energy to the small group of swimmers. Her training attendance and general attitude and discipline have been very good since she started with us. The fact that she is now training with other senior swimmers preparing for international competitions, raises her standard and mentality. Her build up to Commonwealth games was very challenging for her because we had very little time to prepare her and she didn?t have a group to start with. She coped with a program focused on improving her speed and power mainly up to the Commonwealth Games. She now is on a more long term plan focusing on preparing her for the senior African Championships in September, if she gets selected and the Mauritius national championships in November. I?m very excited about her potential and the possibility of Melissa achieving a "B" qualifying time for Beijing 2008 », écrit Rocco Meiring dans son rapport sur Mélissa Vincent.

Steven Ball, son strength and conditioning coach, est également d?avis que la nageuse est sur la bonne voie. « Since returning from Melbourne we have looked at the long term development of Melissa, with special emphasis on her strength and power development, to enhance her swimming performance. Melissa shows a great deal of motivation, dedication and aptitude for the learning of new skills and movement patterns taught. This is encouraging in that we were able to perform some complex movements needed for her swimming », écrit-il pour sa part.

Quant à Mélissa Vincent, elle est toute excitée et attend avec impatience sa première compétition en Afrique en juillet.

« Tout se passe bien. Je me sens à l?aise et c?est très professionnel. Je voudrais dire un grand merci à mes sponsors, Panagora, Ciel Textile et Mecom », souligne-t-elle.