Rwanda’s women national basketball league defending champions APR have opted out of this year’s 22nd edition of FIBA Zone V club championship that will be held from October 1-7 in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.

The military side was supposed to represent the country in the women category as 2014/15 season champions along with runners-up Ubumwe Basketball Club but have decided to pull out from the regional competition citing lack of enough players, according to head coach Charles Mbazumutima.

"We decided to skip this competition because we have a fragile squad comprising very young and student players… we are building a team that will compete in next year’s edition,” said Mbazumutima

During last year’s edition that was hosted in Kigali, Rwanda finished last out of six teams without a win.

"It’s a better idea to pull out instead of going there for the sake of participating without a target and Zone V is a high level competition that requires an experienced squad and by next year we hope to be in a position to challenge for the title,” he added.

Rwanda will now field three clubs, namely Espoir and Patriots in the men’s category, while Ubumwe will compete in the ladies’ category.

FIBA Africa Zone V attracts 11 countries and these include Burundi, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Egypt, Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

Egypt’s Gezira that debuted in last year’s edition are the reigning champions of the men’s crown while Berco Stars from Burundi claimed the women title.

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