Local basketball federation, Ferwaba is planning to organize a tournament in memory of two fallen figures, Jean de Dieu Nizeyimana and Aimable Shampiyona.

The one-week tournament is scheduled to start on March 29 and run through April 6 in Kigali.

According to a Ferwafa senior official, the event is being organized to honor both Nizeyimana and Shampiyona both of them played major roles in developing the sport in the country.

"We are organizing this tournament for the first time with plans to make it an annul event," Ferwaba Secretary General Jean Lucien Mugabo said yesterday.

Both Nizeyimana and Shampiyona are credited for fostering basketball in Lycee de Kigali, one of the leading high schools in the country as well as the current league side GBU.

By the time of his sudden death, which shocked the entire local basketball fraternity last year, Nizeyimana was serving as assistant national team coach.

All local clubs and their senior sides have been invited to take part in the tournament that will be staged at Amahoro indoor stadium courts.

So far, nine clubs including six in the boys’ category and three in the girls’ have confirmed their participation.

APR, Rwanda National University (UNR), KIE, Espoir, CSK A and the national Junior team in the boys’ while APR, UNR and a specially formed federation team in the girls’.

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