THE first phase of the national Goal ball championship gets underway in Musanze, Northern Province this weekend.

According to the National Blind Association Federation (NBSA), this year’s championship will be held in three phases with an aim of promoting the sport of visually impaired athletes.

The second phase will be contested between May 24th and 25th in Rwamagana while the final phase will be concluded between June 7th and 8th at the Paralympics stadium located in Remera, Kigali.

Speaking to Saturday Sports, NBSA chairman William Safari revealed that his tournament has a two-fold purpose of both preparing elite goal ball players and raising awareness of visually handicapped people.

"We hope to identify skilled players as the tournament kicks off. We need to take our sport to another level. Rwanda is now ranked fourth on the continental standings and thirteenth on the world rankings.”

"So we need to work hard since we need to embark on talent detection in this coming tournament. To achieve this, people need to change also their mindset in regard to blind people’s sport.’

"They need to know that visually-impaired people have the ability to play. Therefore we have undertaken "blind sport week” aimed at encouraging people to let young blind people exercise their rights to play,” he added.

Eleven teams will take part in this year’s championship. They include G.S Gain, HVP Gatagara (Rwamagana), Nyarugenge District, Gisagara District, Rubavu District, Musanze District, Bugesera District, Ruhango District, Ngororero District, University of Rwanda ( Huye campus) and University of  Rwanda ( Education campus).

G.S Gahini is the defending champions of this sport which was introduced in Rwanda back in 2005.