Six for African Championships

Six athletes, including one girl, will represent Rwanda at the Senior African Athletics Championship in Porto-Nova, Benin scheduled for June 26 to July 1.

Thursday, May 31, 2012
Mukasakindi (25) will compete in the 10,000 metres where she will be seeking to attain the minimum qualifying time for the London Games. The New Times / File.

Six athletes, including one girl, will represent Rwanda at the Senior African Athletics Championship in Porto-Nova, Benin scheduled for June 26 to July 1.This was confirmed by the Rwanda Athletics Federation Executive Secretary Raymond Bananeza yesterday.Robert Kajuga and Claudette Mukasakindi will compete in the 10,000m while Cyriaque Ndayikengurukiye and Emmanuel Ntakiyimana will run in the 5000m and 400m races respectively.For the first time ever, the country will send a participant in the long jump.Top athletes including Kajuga, Mukasakindi and Ndayikengurukiye will be hoping to get the required minimum qualification times to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics Games."The athletes who qualify for the London Games will be sent to Kenya to train alongside their top Kenyan counterparts for three weeks,” Bananeza said.Meanwhile, Jean Pierre Mvuyekure, who has already qualified for the Olympics, is also expected to train along with the Benin bound team as he continues his preparations.The APR athletics club runner pulled out of the Kigali International Peace marathon over a niggling injury which he has since shaken off.Rwanda is expected to send a 42 man delegation to the London Games with representatives in the fields of cycling, athletics, swimming and taekwondo, while Paralympics will be represented in sitting volleyball, power lifting and athletics.