Sitting Volleyball team finishes 9th in Paralympic Games

9-10 Classification, FridayRwanda 3-1 MoroccoRWANDA sitting volleyball team edged out Morocco to snatch ninth overall position in the 9-10 classification Sitting Volleyball match in the on-going Paralympic Games on Friday at ExCeL, South Arena 2 London.Rwanda recorded their maiden victory of the tournament by beating Morocco three sets to one (20-25, 27-25, 25-22, and 25-23) to ensure they were not, despite all expectation, the worst team in the Paralympic tournament.Until they faced the Moroccans they had not won a set in the competition. Suddenly, they were dancing around the court in jubilation, the crowd of 5,000 cheering them to the echo.Prior to the classification match, you could see that from the moment they walked or rather limped, shuffled and hobbled on to the courtside. This was a side full of spirit and togetherness, even though they had already been whitewashed by Iran, Brazil, China and Bosnia Herzegovina.Encouraged by their calm Dutch coach Pieter Karreman, though, they endlessly supported each other as the match got under way, greeting every point won with hand-slapping and cheery commotion.Despite losing the first set, they soon managed to seize something they had not enjoyed in any of their previous matches: the initiative.It wasn’t hard to see why they were winning. Physically, the Moroccans seemed heavier, slower, and less athletic. In a sport in which the torso is everything (Michael Phelps would make a superb sitting volleyball player), the taller, leaner Rwandans began to inch towards victory. They claimed the second and third sets, and in the fourth finally found themselves in the new position of serving for the match.When they won it, their joy was infectious. In the press box, the volunteers who had watched Rwanda’s unsteady progress through this competition celebrated as if it were the British who had won.“Ever since we came to Bury St Edmunds for our training camp the English people have loved us,” team Captain Emile Vuningabo told the press.“Everything about this tournament has been perfect for us. Everything has worked.” “The floors,” he said. “That is what we have learned most about being here. The floors on the gym are hard. Maybe one day we will have them like this back home,” added Vuningabo.The victory meant that Rwanda is second ranked on African continent behind Egypt who was set to face Brazil in the 5-6 classification match yesterday by press time.