Niyomugabo begins chase for Olympic glory

AFTER a poor showing in judo, Rwanda will be hoping for better outing in the swimming Men’s 50m freestyle this morning at the London Aquatics centre. With Fred Yannick Sekamana easily beaten by Brazilian Bruno Mendoca in the preliminary round of judo competition two days ago, Rwanda’s familiar shortcomings at the biggest stage may have to continue. Swimmer Jackson Niyomugabo is in an African affair in lane 7 of heat two alongside Ethiopia’s Girma Teshale Mulualem, Eritrea’s Osman Abdourahman, Wei Ching of American Samoe, Paul Edingue Ekane of Cameroon and Ganzi Mugula of Uganda, Mohammed Elkhedr of Sudan.Ganzi and Ekane are favourites to win the heat considering their best qualifying time of 27:58 compared to Niyomugabo’s 27: 73. He needs to improve drastically on his time to progress to the semifinals.Niyomugabo told Times Sport yesterday from London that he is ready for the showdown. “I have trained successfully and I am looking forward to the competition”.“I will be aiming to clock a better qualification time to ensure that i reach the semi finals but i know it won’t be an easy task,”Asked on his African rivals, Niyomugabo admitted, “They are good in the pool and am worried because some of them are experienced swimmers if their qualifying time is anything to go by,” The two-time Olympian uses a textbook to perfect his stroke.Niyomugabo uses a French book “The Secrets of Swimming Development” as his main coach.His female counterpart, 16-year-old Alphonsine Agahozo, will take to the pool in the women’s 50-meter freestyle tomorrow.

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Niyomugabo begins chase for Olympic glory