The national karate team coach Noel Nkuranyabahizi is upset by the second cancellation of the 16th edition of African Karate Championships that was expected to take place from July 15-17 in Durban, South Africa.

The team has been training rigorously for the past two months at Amahoro national stadium seeking to win the first gold medal at the biennial continental showpiece.

The team wanted to also use the platform to gain experience ahead of this year’s World Karate Championship scheduled from October 25 to 30 in Zurich, Austria.

"We are very disappointed because we had devoted much time to prepare for this competition hoping to boost our experience, but recently they informed us that the tournament will not be staged until further notice,” said Nkuranyabahizi in an interview with Times Sport.

He noted that, "However we are going to carry on with training to keep players fit ahead of the world championship in October.”

Initially, this year’s edition was supposed to be staged in Libreville, Gabon from April 22-24 but Gabon later withdrew from hosting the competition and South Africa stepped in as substitute hosts, only for them to also withdraw later.

 In the 2014 championships which was staged in Dakar, Senegal, out of the team of 16 players that represented Rwanda, only one, Solange Gashagaza Ingabire, won a bronze medal after subduing an opponent from Congo Brazzaville.

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