The Rwanda Athletics Federation (RAF) has kick-started a talent detection exercise to discover new talented youngsters who can put Rwanda on the map in the world of Athletics.

While Rwandans have over the years struggled to impress at international athletics competitions, the federation, led by president Lt. Col (Rtd) Lemuel Kayumba, believes their new talent search could help them produce new athletes with potential to win medals on the global stage.

The initiative seeks to operate and develop athletics in Rwanda thus attracting and sustaining the potential of future sporting stars.

"Rwanda’s got talent in athletics and we are here to help these young athletes grow their talent and equip them with enough package with which they can compete for medals against the best in the world,” said Kayumba.

During the 2022 inter-school competitions organised by Rwanda School Sports Federation in June, the federation selected 44 talented young athletes,19 boys and 15 girls, from track and field disciplines (running, throwing and jumping) and organised a 10-day training camp for them where they met coaches to help them strengthen competitive capacity in their respective disciplines.

However, 10 of them weren’t able to participate as they were representing Rwanda at the just-concluded 2022 FEASSSA games held in Tanzania.

The performance of the athletes impressed Kayumba who hinted that a number of them could start representing the country at international athletics competitions in the near future.

"Their performance has significantly improved and we have already identified some athletes who will represent the country in future competitions,” Kayumba said.

However some athletes’ progression might be hampered due to the fact that their schools don’t have facilities that are favorable for them to keep training while they also lack competitions to keep their level of performance on a stable balance.

"We don’t have facilities and this only gets us out of form while at school. We need more competitions so we can perform and improve if we are to shine at international athletics tournaments,” said Benata Nyiraneza, one of the young athletes who attended the camp.

To maintain the level of performance of the athletes, the federation will keep an eye on each of them at their respective schools while the plan to bring them together at one or two schools of excellence is work in progress.

"We are going to follow them up at their respective schools and determine whether the schools have the facilities that are favorable for their disciplines in order to help them continue training at school,” he said.

In the future, especially during holidays, the federation is planning to organise more intakes that will reach more young talents in schools countrywide.