With only two days to the national cross country championship at Nyarutarama, Rwanda’s top athletes including rising star Sylvain Rukundo have upped their training sessions at Amahoro stadium.

"I have been training for the last fifteen days and feel in great shape for the competition,” Rukundo told Times Sport in a phone interview.

The national championships will act as selections for the team that will represent Rwanda at the World Cross Country Championships due March 28 in Amman, Jordan. Meanwhile, national champion Dieudonne Disi will not be taking part in the event.

The local athletics federation assured Disi of an automatic qualification basing on the fact that the Olympic runner had already started working on his individual training ahead of the World Athletics Championship due in Berlin, Germany.

The federation’s Secretary General Appolinaire Munyangoga told Times Sport that the athlete will be allowed to continue with his own training program and will lead Rwanda to the Amman World championship.

The athletics federation technical committee has decided that the final team will be selected in the one-day local cross country championship.

It has all been announced that Rwanda will be represented by a team of 12 runners, five senior boys, two senior girls and five junior girls.

Over eight clubs have registered for the marathon. These include; A.P.R, Puma, Kamonyi, Muhanga, National University of Rwanda (NUR), Urumuri, Gatenga and New athletics stars.

Male athletes will compete in the 8km (juniors) and 12km (seniors) distances while female athletes will contest in the 6km and 8km races.

The athletes will be named from the national cross country championship will automatically qualify to represent the country in the world event.

Ends