Although they won medals at last weekend’s athletics competition in Lusaka Zambia, Rwandan athletes Honorine Iribagiza and Martha Yankurije (women) and Yves Nimubona (men) still have a mountain to climb to secure qualification to represent Rwanda at the forthcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Both Nimubona and Yankurije, who run for APR Athletics Club, on Sunday, May 16, won gold medals in the 10.000m and 5 000m respectively during the just-concluded All-Comers Meet track and Field Competition held in Lusaka, Zambia.

Their victory came a day after their compatriot and Sina Gerard Athletics female runner Iribagiza won silver after clocking 2:10.57 in the 800 m race category, four seconds behind Zambian Felistus Mpande who won the race to win gold on her home soil.

However, their performance was not as impressive as targeted, according to Fidele Mubiligi, the president of Rwanda Athletics, because none of the trio managed to hit the times required to qualify for the Olympic Games.

While he hoped the Lusaka competition is the last chance for the Rwandan representatives to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Games, Mubiligi told Times Sport that this year’s edition in Lusaka wasn’t as competitive as it used to and that affected Rwandan athletes’ performances as a result despite winning medals.

"Our athletes lacked serious opponents who would give them a challenge in the race because, with the challenge, I am sure they would have done better and secured qualification to Tokyo. But their opponents’ performances were below par and that affected our athletes,” Mubiligi said in an interview.

Zambia is one of the countries with best performing athletes in the sprint categories, especially in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800 m races and that makes the country put more focus on the categories than middle and long-distance races.

Similar categories dominate the country’s athletics tournaments from which a number of international athletes win tickets for the Olympic Games.

However, the country’s athletes are not good at middle and long-distance races and it was the first time the Zambian Athletics Federation included long-distance categories in the All-Comers Meet track and Field Competition.

Prior to the competition, Rwandan representatives were far from motivated by the conditions in which they were going through due to discouraging circumstances.

There was a high possibility that Rwandans were going to miss out on the 5 000m and 10 000m, despite having laded in Lusaka already, because the number of athletes who registered for the competition in the two categories was too small.

The only possible option for Nimubona and Yankurije was to compete at least in the 3 000m category.

However, they were allowed to compete in their respective categories at the last minute after RAF’s late intervention. 

Meanwhile, Times Sport earlier reported that Iribagiza was expected to run in the 1 500m category but, surprisingly, she found herself with no option other than competing in the 800m category.

Things went from bad to worse when the middle-distance runner, despite winning a silver medal, joined the rest of the runners for the race just minutes after landing in Lusaka on Saturday. She didn’t get a single second to rest due to the fact that her flight was delayed from Wednesday, May 12, to Friday, May 14 after she was denied traveling without having a PCR covid-19 test.

Her team thought a Rapid Test for the pandemic was enough for her to be cleared to travel.

There is still a chance

The Lusaka Marathon was believed to be the last chance for Rwanda athletes to qualify for the Tokyo 2020. However, Mubiligi confirmed that there is still a chance to qualify as the Athletics federation (RAF) is still looking for other competitions for athletes yet to secure qualification to the Tokyo 2020 Games.

"We are looking for other qualifying competitions and we hope they can still qualify. There is still a chance to go to Tokyo,” he said.

The Tokyo 2020 Games are scheduled to begin on July 23 and conclude on August 8 in Tokyo, Japan.

The event was originally due to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, but it was postponed in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will not allow international spectators.