The Genocide Memorial Tournament defending champions Rayon Sports will be out to retain their volleyball title ahead of the 19th edition which will be played over the weekend in Kigali.

A total of 24 teams will compete in this year’s Genocide Memorial Tournament which has attracted 11 women's and 13 men's teams from Botswana, Kenya, South Sudan, Congo Brazzaville, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

Rayon Sports volleyball head coach, Fidele Nyirimana said, "It is the biggest and most important event because we know these games are important for us, so we need to be calm and be ready for the challenge. We are the defending champions and we need to retain our title. We know it will be very tough but we believe that we are capable of making a difference.”

"Our target is to win all our matches and I am confident that the team can do it. The players have got a winning mentality. They have been doing well in training and league matches so I’m confident we will retain the title,” Nyirimana noted.

Rayon Sports are unbeaten in the league so far and Nyirimana is keen to continue with that form into the Genocide Memorial Tournament, which will run throughout the weekend.

"We are going into this weekend’s games with an aim of winning. We will not change our mentality or approach, and we will continue to look for more wins because we want to win the tournament,” Nyirimana added.

The annual event is held in commemoration of the 46 (known) members of the volleyball fraternity including players, coaches and administrators as well as other Rwandans who were killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The matches will be played at different grounds across the City of Kigali including Amahoro Indoor Stadium, Kimisagara Youth Center, KIE, Ecole Belge, University of Rwanda College of Business and Economics (former SFB) and Premature.

In the women’s category, the reigning champions Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) have been placed with Botswana in Group A while Nairobi Water (Kenya), Ruhango and Sport-S (Uganda) are in Group B. APR, KAVC (Uganda) and Kenya Academy are in Group C. Burundian side Muzinga and St Aloys are in Group D.

In the men’s category, Rayon Sports, Kirehe and Sky (Uganda) are in Group A while Group B is comprised of APR, KAVC and Diable Rouge (Congo Brazzaville). In Group C is Sport-S (Uganda), INATEK, Cobra (South Sudan) and Muzinga (Burundi). Kigali Volleyball Club (KVC), Nemostars and Rukinzo are in Group D.