Volleyball team to begin AAG preparation in July

Volleyball senior national team will start their preparations early next month ahead of the All Africa Games, which is slated in September 4-19 in Congo Brazzaville, according to the Executive Secretary, Christian Hatumimana. Head coach Paul Bitok will name the provisional team later this month. FRVB has plans to use the Men’s African Volleyball Championship slated for July 20 to 31 in Cairo, Egypt as part of the team’s preparations. “We need to prepare the team well, we will use the Africa Championship as the preparations but we are waiting for the approval from Ministry of Sports and Culture to know if the team will actually take part in the continental tournament,” Hatumimana said on Saturday. Rwanda is pooled alongside North African giants Algeria, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Ghana and Seychelles in Group B of the upcoming All Africa Games. Hosts Congo Brazzaville have been pooled in Group A alongside Botswana, Gambia, Egypt, Nigeria and Mozambique. Other teams that qualified for the 2015 All Africa Games have confirmed that they will compete in Africa National Championship. Rwanda beat Uganda, Burundi and Kenya to earn the ticket of All Africa Games. In 2011 in All Africa Games, which held in Maputo, Mozambique, Rwanda was pooled in same group with Cameroon and Seychelles. Rwanda lost to Cameroon 3-1 (25-20, 19-25, 25-20 and 25-18) and defeated Seychelles 3-1 (27-29, 25-13, 25-10 and 27-25). In semi –finals, Rwanda lost to Algeria 3-0 (25-21, 25-16 and 30-28).