Events

Thursday, August 14
50m freestyle men
Friday, August 15
50m freestyle women

Beijing  - Rwanda’s two Olympic swimmers are not showing any signs of readiness before they take the big stage in 50m freestyle event next week at the national aquatics centre, Beijing, China.

With only six days before Pamela Girimbabazi and Jackson Niyomugabo open their Olympic campaign, there are no signs of the pair being ready for the challenge lying ahead.

The pair was below par in yesterday’s training session held at the Olympic village swimming pool.

Niyomugabo, who normally clocks 25 seconds in 50m freestyle, was two seconds slower and he looks nowhere near closing the gap on the world record of 21.28 held by Australian Eamon Sullivan.

Girimbabazi, who holds a personal best of 35 seconds, was a whole five seconds slower in yesterday’s training, a far cry from the world record of 23.97 held by Australian Libby Trickett.

The duo that trained for only one hour did not only have a poor training session but showed signs of nervousness and fatigue.

Something that forced their coach Richard Ramira to say, "I have witnessed some unusual performances from them (Rwandan swimmers) but I hope this is stress.”

"We’ve been doing some serious training since we arrived here (Beijing) with a view to acclimatise with the weather,” Ramira noted.

According to Ramira, the pool the pair used for yesterday’s training is 1.5m deeper than the competition pool, which is 2.5m; a feat which he said hinders the swimmers displaying their best.

"They were impressive in the competitive pool (national aquatics centre) two days ago but because it’s far we’ve decided to train from the village,” he said.

If the swimmers don’t improve in their tactics, there could be a repeat of the Sydney 2000 Games where Girimbabazi was disqualified for violating the technical rules.

In a related development, it was all joy for the Chinese people and everybody in Beijing as all roads led to the national stadium to witness the historical opening of the 29th Olympic Games here in Beijing, china.

Rwanda which has been used to make their entry into the opening ceremony of several Games in the past has been placed among the first countries (51) to enter the stadium because of the stroke of the Chinese characters and not the alphabet.

Ends