Nationalwomen sitting volleyball team captain Liliane Mukobwankawe believes Rwanda is better suited to play as underdogs at the forthcoming 2016 Rio Paralympic Games slated for September 7-18 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Rwanda is set to make a historic appearance as the first African women team at the multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities, following their fairytale qualification campaign during the 2015 Africa Para Volley Championship that was held in Kigali.

The debutants will have their hands full after the International Paralympic Committee confirmed the two pools for the eight nations that qualified, with Rwanda in Group B alongside the top two ranked teams, China (1) and USA (2) as well as Iran.

Speaking to Times Sport after the team’s return from their final training camp in the Netherlands, Mukobwankawe revealed that staying top in Africa remains their top priority.

"There has been a significant progress in our game since we started preparations going to Slovenia, China and Netherlands, we are the youngest teamamong all teams that will compete and our target is to prove the odds wrong, we will not fear to win against giants,” she said.

In their final ten-day training camp in Netherlands, Rwanda team competed in the Dutch Para Volley championship that had attracted seven countries, including China, USA, Russia, Ukraine, Slovenia and the hosts Holland.

However, they lost all the six matches in straight sets (3-0) failing to win a single set, something that Mukobwankawe attributed to  poor game reading and naivety, which he says, was due to inexperience.

She noted that: "This camp was meant to give us a true picture of where we stand regarding what we have been working on, our game reading is still not good enough, however; with the two months left, we can make improvement.”

Peter Karreman’s team will resume non-residential training on July 15 at the National Paralympic Committee Gymanasium in Remera.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw