Olympics team to camp for a week

Jean de Dieu Nkundabera has been authorized to resume training after spending up to a week nursing an ankle injury.

The 2004 Athens Paralympics bronze medalist twisted his ankle last week while training at Amahoro stadium as he prepares for this year’s Beijing Paralympics Games set for September 6-17 in China.

The Olympics team doctor Patrick Rutamu told Times Sport yesterday that the 27-year-old is now free to resume training.

"He (Nkundabera) had not been training since last week due to an injured ankle but he is now fit to continue training,” Rutamu said.

Nkundabera will be Rwanda sole representative at the Beijing Paralympics Games where he will be hoping for a repeat of the 2004 heroics in Athens.

Nkundabera won Rwanda’s first ever Paralympics or Olympic medal in any sport, by taking bronze in the Men’s 800 - T52 meters race in a time of 1:58.95.

The Paralympics Games are an elite sporting event for athletes with physical disability that emphasizes the participants’ athletic achievements, not their disability.

Rwanda goes to this year’s Beijing Olympic Games with only four athletes, including two runners and two swimmers.

They include; Dieudonne Disi (10.000m), Epiphanie Nyirabarame (marathon), Pamela Girimbabazi and Jackson Niyomugabo (swimming).

In a related development, Rwanda’s team to Beijing Games is expected to start residential training on Monday next week, seven days before the team’s departs to China.

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