Rwanda’s national wheelchair basketball team on Wednesday night left for Johannesburg, South Africa to compete in the forthcoming 3x3 Wheelchair Basketball championship slated between 7-11 October.

Winning the tournament will decide who will represent Africa at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. 

The countries participating in the tournament are South Africa the hosts, Rwanda, Kenya, Namibia and Gambia. There is only one ticket for the Commonwealth Games.

The four-man squad that left for Johannesburg include Meshack Rwampungu (Bugesera), Dieudonné Munyaneza (Bugesera), Hashim Muhirwa (Bugesera) and Emmanuel Hakizimana (Gasabo).

Wheelchair Basketball is a basketball game played by people with disabilities sitting in bicycles. It started playing in Rwanda in May 2018 and its Association was officially launched in February 2020.

While Rwandans are used to the five to five championships (5x5), the fact that the 3x3 Wheelchair Basketball game is new in Rwanda puts the country in the underdog box but head coach Jean Paul Hirwa said that they are ready for the tournament and is confident of winning a ticket.

"The team is well prepared. We have tried to put in the effort, we have trained, we hope that we will return victorious and make Rwandans proud,” said Hirwa.

"We have had enough time to analyse the footage of the teams we will face, their playing style and their strengths so we can better prepare for the games between us. There is hope,” he added.

In Rwanda, the Wheelchair Basketball Championship is currently played by three men’s teams: Musanze, Gasabo and Bugesera while the women’s category has two teams in Gasabo and Kicukiro.