Rwanda slips two places in world karate ranking

After suffering an early exit from the World Karate Federation (WKF) Championships in Bremen- Germany, last week, Rwanda has slipped two places, to 85th in the latest world karate ranking.

Thursday, November 13, 2014
Karate players training for the world championship recently. Their poor performance has led to Rwanda dropping in the Karate rankings. (Timothy Kisambira)

After suffering an early exit from the World Karate Federation (WKF) Championships in Bremen- Germany, last week, Rwanda has slipped two places, to 85th in the latest world karate ranking.

In August, Rwanda moved up 10 places to 83rd in the WKF ranking after the national team’s strong showing at the 15th Senior African Karate Championship in Senegal.

National Karate Federation (Ferwaka) technical director Guy Didier Rurangayire, however, is optimistic that the country will move further up "sooner than later” as the young Rwandan players are improving day by day.

On the continent, however, Rwanda stayed at number 10, while Egypt is still number one, followed by Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and South Africa, in that order.

In East Africa, only Kenya comes closer and is ranked 102nd in the world and 16th in Africa.Globally, France is still number one, followed by turkey, Italy, Egypt, Germany, Croatia, Japan, Russia, and Venezuela, in that order

The world Karate rankings are released after every major tournament.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw