The duo of beach volleyball players Charlote Nzayisenga and Denyse Mutatsimpundu have requested for support to start early preparations ahead of next year’s Commonwealth Games to be held in Austria.

"We need early preparations. Last time we lost our group matches because of poor preparations and flight delays, so we are requesting to have better training before the event,” captain Nzayisenga said after returning from Free Town, Serra Leone on Tuesday.

The Rwanda women’s beach volleyball team are the champions of Africa after beating Nigeria in the gold medal match at the African Championships that concluded on Sunday in Free Town, Serra Leone to qualify for 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Ndayisenga and Mutatsimpundu have had a consistent stellar performance. They won gold at the U20 level in 2012 before claiming the senior continental title after beating the 2015 All African Games gold medalists in straight sets 2-0 (21-18 and 21-13) on Sunday.

Rwanda will be Africa’s sole representative at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April.

The duo has been doing better on the local scene and has won all beach volleyball competitions held in Rwanda since 2015.

On the international stage, the pair won a gold medal at the 2017 CAVB Beach Volleyball Cup in Maputo, Mozambique in May.

This qualified them for the World Championships that was staged in Vienna, Austria in August where they unfortunately lost all their games.

In 2012, the duo, playing at the junior level, won gold at the Africa Championships in Togo but failed to participate in the World Championships in Canada after the hosts denied the Rwandan team entry visas.

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