Beraho slams continued dependence on wildcards

Rwanda National Olympic Committee (RNOC) boss Ignace Beraho has expressed his disappointment with the country’s continued dependence on wildcards for major international competitions. Beraho told Times Sport that local federations should desist from the habit of waiting for wildcards but instead work in training and fostering talent identification such that Rwandan can qualify her athletes for international competitions. “Wildcards are given to countries without competitive athletes and this is not the case with Rwanda where we have competent and talented athletes. “(National) federations have deliberately failed to do their tasks of training and searching for young talents but are only concerned with accompanying national teams so that they can get the small allowances for the mission,” said Beraho. He added, “It must be a challenge for our young athletes to compete on the international level but if there are to use wildcards, how will they improve.” The veteran sports administrator, who is no stranger to these kinds of attacks on national federations, noted that Rwanda should stop relying on wildcards. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has allocated four wildcard slots to Rwanda for the 2010 inaugural Youth Olympic Games which will run from August 14-26 in Singapore. The slots are in the categories of boxing, athletics and swimming.In addition to the wildcards, Rwanda still has a chance to beat minimum qualifications to enable them have more representatives at the Youth Games. Ends

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Beraho slams continued dependence on wildcards