Four players of the national team, including skipper Lawrence Yakan Guma, have retired from international volleyball just two days after helping Rwanda to finish sixth at the 2021 African Nations Championships.

The quartet, separately, announced their retirement on Thursday.

The retirees also include libero Emile Karera, Flavien Ndamukunda and Vincent ‘Gasongo’ Dusabimana.

Yakan and Ndamukunda were hitherto the longest-serving players on the national team, having made their senior international debuts in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Yakan, arguably the best player of his generation, has also played for different clubs in domestic and foreign leagues. In 2012, while playing for Etoile Sportif Setif, he was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Algerian topflight league.

Dusabimana received his first call-up to the national team in 2009, while Karera made his first appearance for Rwanda in 2010.

Rwanda is the first country to host the men’s and women’s volleyball African championships the same year. The men’s showpiece came to a close on September 14, while the ongoing women’s tournament runs from September 12 until 19.

Most of the games were held at the Kigali Arena, except a few – in the classification playoffs – that took place at Amahoro Indoor Stadium.