Athletes start medal hunt

RWANDA will have four athletes chasing for honours this afternoon at the JN Sports Complex. 100m specialist Saidi Ndayisaba will run at 1.30pm and head coach Innocent Rwabuhihi concedes that the sprinter has to knock off a few micro-seconds from his personal best (10.08) to stand a chance of getting through the heat stages. Jamaica’s Clarke Lerone Ephraime, who clocked 9.99, is one of the favorites in this category. Later in the day, Sylvain Rukundo, Jean Baptista Simuceka and Eric Sebahire will be on the track to compete in 5000m.The Italian-based trio will come up against athletes from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Australia, England, Guyana, New Zealand, Zambia and India respectively. Kenya, who are always favorites in long distance races, will rely heavily on Beijing silver medalist Eliud Kipchoge, Mark Kiptoo and Vincent Kipsegechi; Uganda has fielded Moses Ndiema Kipsiro and Geoffrey Kusuro while Tanzania’s hopes rest on Paul Damiano Chopa. In a related development, Team Rwanda (the national cycling team) left for Delhi yesterday and are expected to touch down at Indira Gandhi international airport this morning. The five-man team coached by Jonathan Boyer includes Adrien Niyonshuti, Gasore Hategeka, Nicodem Habiyambere, Nathan Byukusenge and Abraham Ruhumuriza. The road race is scheduled for October 10 while the time trial race will be held two days later. Ends