RWANDA suffered a disappointing loss to defending champions Iran in the first match of the sitting volleyball tournament of the London 2012 Paralympic Games played on Thursday night at ExCeL.

Rwanda lost to Iran 3-1 (11-25, 6-25, 8-25) as the defending Paralympic champions fed off the Rwandan errors the entire night. Majid Lashgarisanami was the match’s top scorer for Iran with 10 points.

In other matches, Russia defeated Great Britain in three sets (25-14, 25-18, 25-20.

Bosnia-Herzegovina beat China 3-0 (26-24, 25-21, 25-17) and Egypt beat Morocco 3-0 (25-10, 25-12, 25-22).