Nyiransabimana battles to represent Rwanda in Beijing

Rwanda’s female athlete Angelline Nyiransabimana is facing hard lines in securing minimum qualification standards to represent her country in Beijing Olympic Games set for August 8-24 in China. The 19-year-old star, who is currently training Rome, Italy courtesy of the International Olympic Solidarity Fund, has participated in two European championships but her timings have been far below then required standard timings needed for her to take part in this year’s Olympic Games. Late last month, Nyiransabimana participated in the Italy championship and clocked 4:17:00 in the 1500m, which is a new national record but failed to beat the 4:08.00 Olympic Standard time. She also took part in the Spain track championship where she clocked 15:43:00 in 10.000m, also a new national record but failed to beat the needed 15:24.00 qualification mark for the Beijing Games. With the deadline for Beijing qualification due on July 23, Nyiransabimana plans to take part in one more event to try out her last chance in the qualification campaign. To date, the total number of Rwandan athletes going for the Beijing Games stands at just four including the two runners and two swimmers. Dieudonné Disi (10.000m) and Epiphanie Nyirabarame (Marathon) are the only two athletes who have qualified for the Games. In Swimming, Pamela Girimbabazi and Jackson Niyomugabo are the two swimmers that Rwanda will rely on for Olympic Games medals this year. Girimbabazi is the leading and most experienced female swimmer in the country having taken participated in the last two Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia 2000 and Athens, Greece in 2004. Ends

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Nyiransabimana battles to represent Rwanda in Beijing