Rwanda’s chances of having more athletes qualify for this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing were dented further after nine more athletes failed at the ongoing Africa Athletics Championship in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Now hopes rest on the duo of Slyvain Rukundo (5000m) and Godfrey Rutayisire (1500m) who qualified for last night’s final in their respective races. Rutayisire qualified with a time of 3:53.26 through the first round heat stages to reach the final, four places behind Ethiopian Deresse Mekonen who clocked 3:48.12. The 20-year-old must shed his time to 3:39.00 if he can secure the Beijing ticket for Rwanda. On the other hand, Rukundo who has had a poor start this year needs to improve on his time of 14:07.00 to beat the required minimum qualification standard time of 13:28.00. In Saturday’s results, all the nine leading national athletes failed to neither beat the minimum qualification standards nor qualify in their disciplines to reach the next stage. Sophie Kanakuze bundled out of the 200m event after finishing sixth, clocking 27.75, 4.55 seconds behind the required minimum qualification time for the Olympic Games. Islam Mulinda repeated his in 200m just as he did in100m as he clocked 22.65 to finish seventh in the heat stage. Jean D’arc Uwamahoro finished fifth in the 800m first round, clocking 2:14.07 behind veteran defending champion Maria Mutola who reached the finals in 2:06:74. In the 4*400 relays, Rwanda team made up of Etienne Gashagaza, Musa Bizimana, Innocent Hakuzimana and Emmanuel Ntakiyimana failed to qualify for the final round as they clocked 3:23.60 to finish fourth behind Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan respectively. The single event which promised a Beijing ticket was the 10.000m women category. Claudette Mukasakindi making her debut on the continental scene clocked 37:24.39 to finish seventh behind Ethiopia’s Dibaba Tirunesh. Mukasakindi persisted for nearly the first half of the race before the ended as the battle amongst African nations went to after ten rounds. Angelline Nyiransabimana who is a beneficiary of the International Olympic Solidarity scholarship didn’t finish the race thus ending her own chance of qualifying for the Beijing Games. Ends
