The junior girls’ national volleyball team has stepped up their preparations at Amahoro stadium ahead the Girls’ Youth Olympic Games African qualifiers set for March 1-15 in Egypt.

The qualifiers in Egypt capital Cairo will be the solitary qualifying tournament African teams to the 2010 inaugural Youth Olympic Games set for August 14-26 in Singapore.

The technical director of the national volleyball federation, Christian Hatumimana recently said that the players they selected are good enough to qualify the country to Singapore Youth Games. According to Hatumimana, the team which is coached by Kenyan coach Paul Bitok has registered a significant improvement in their skills.

If the volleyball team qualifies, they will join four other Rwandan athletes who have already been selected to represent the country in Singapore.

The quartet was selected from athletes, swimming and boxing after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allocated four wildcard Rwanda National Olympic Committee.

The selected athletes include Alphonsine Agahozo (swimming), Hakiza Matusi (boxing) as well as Adeline Musabyeyezu and Yves Sikubwabo for athletics.

Agahozo, 13 booked a place on the team after winning the KCB sponsored competition in Huye last year.

Matusi, 17, was picked by the boxing federation after he exhibited good performances in last year’s East Military Games staged in Kigali.

Both Musabyeyezu (17) and Sikubwabo also 17 will participate in 3000m. The pair failed to participate in last year’s World Youth Championship held in Italy after failing to get Italian visas in time.

Some 3,594 athletes will compete in Singapore in 26 sports comprising 201 events. The number of sports in the programme is identical to the London 2012 programme.

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