Rwanda will send six athletes at this year’s Mountain Cameroon race, the local athletics federation has confirmed. The race is scheduled for February 21 in the capital Yaoundé. The nine-man delegation will include three officials and six althletes. The athletes include; Godefrey Rutayisire, Eric Sebahire, Evaliste Nzabonimpa, Jean Baptiste Simukaka, Philippe Mugwiza and Etienne Ndabamenye. The officials include a team coach, doctor and a federation official. According to the initial arrangement, the delegation is scheduled to travel on Wednesday February 18. The team’s head coach Innocent Rwabuhihi is highly optimistic of Rwanda’s chances of getting some silverware in Cameroon. He said, “Most of the boys are used to participating in these kinds of competitions and that will give them some confidence.” After successfully organising the African Youth Championship, the first international football tournament to be held in Rwanda, the Sports ministry is starting to feel the pinch. The ministry is paying a huge price, as it is running short of funds to sponsor other disciplines. Various federations are crying foul after Joseph Habineza’s Minispoc only promised to release funds for competitions it deemed urgent and necessary. This development is quite different from the usual norm where all federations have been submitting their annual budgets at will. “The ministry sponsored the senior national football team, The Amavubi Stars in the 2010 World Cup and Africa Nations Cup qualification campaign, then hosted the African Youth Championship, and is scheduled to finance the Zone Five basketball championships. “All this will surely leave a little bit of financial strain on them which will consequently affect other (sports) disciplines as far as funding is concerned,” acknowledged an official in the athletics federation, who however, did not want to be named as he deems the issue “sensitive”. The national athletics team traveling to Cameroon will only get an allowance of US$300 as premium. Ends
