Local athletics governing body, RAF has confirmed that only 13 slots will be available for Rwandan athletes at the Africa Senior Championships set for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from April 30-May 5.

The event will serve as qualifier for the forthcoming Olympic Games scheduled for August 4-24 in the Chinese city of Beijing.

Speaking to Times Sport by telephone yesterday, RAF Secretary General Appolinaire Munyangoga made it clear that the13 slots will go to athletes who performed consistently better throughout last year.

"We intend to take only 13 athletes who we believe are capable to attaining the minimum required standard A time for the Olympic Games.

Not everybody (every athlete) will be on the team. There is certainly going to be serious scrutiny in regards to who qualifies for a place (on the team)," Munyangoga said.

Rwanda seems to be running out of time to get enough athletes who will represent the country in the Beijing Games.

So far, only one runner has Dieudonne Disi qualified for the Games. The 10.000m national champion attained the standard 'A' time of 27:50.00 with his personal best of 27:22:23 (in 10.000m) at the Memorial Van Damme race held in Belgium last September.

Meanwhile, RAF needs over Frw78 million to prepare the team in two different phases but all is not well for the national athletics body in the run up to the Beijing event as their treasure chests are parched.

The first phase of preparation was meant to prepare the national cross country team ahead of this year’s World championship in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 30.

The second phase will see athletes prepare for the Africa Senior Championship in Addis Ababa, but before those two major championships, athletes will take part in two regional championships.

The Tanzania Cross Country next month and the Kigali International Peace Marathon set for April will both be used to prepare the athletes World Cross Country championship and the Africa Senior Championship.

However, Munyangoga noted that lack of funds (at the moment) is hindering the athletes’ preparations for these championships.

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