The Under-19 women’s national handball team head coach Francois Xavier Ngarambe has praises his team’s enthusiasm shown in training ahead of the African Junior Championships scheduled for August 31 to September 9 in Oyo, Congo Brazaville.

Rwanda, which will be appearing in the tournament for the first time, is under intensive preparations in residential camp since July 29 when they first camped at ES Kigoma in Ruhango District, South Province for two weeks before shifting to Kigali on August 16.

The junior team is drawn in Group A alongside 2011 finalists Angola, neighbors Democratic Republic of Congo and Algeria. Hosts Congo Brazaville won the last edition held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 2011.

"The good thing for my team is that players are motivated and willing to learn everyday in training, which can only be good for us if we are to e able to achieve our targets,” Ngarambe said on Saturday.

He added, "The main target for us is to qualify for next year’s world championships to be held in Brazil, which requires reaching the semi-finals, so we shall go out there to try to achieve our objective.”

Debutants Rwanda will start their campaign against Angola on September 1, take on Algeria the next day before wrapping-up with neighbors DR Congo in the last group match on September 3.

The team is expected to leave the country for the continental championship on August 29.