Home Sports End of the road for Rwanda Youth Olympic Games Teams

End of the road for Rwanda Youth Olympic Games Teams

by Bonnie Mugabe
2:47 pm

Penelope Musabyimana (left) and Valentine Munezero (right) pose with their coach Christophe Mudahinyuka (middle) after a past training session at Amahoro Stadium. Courtesy Photo

Rwanda’s quest for silverware at the year’s edition of the quadrennial Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) ended on Friday as representatives Beach Volleyball team and 3000m athlete concluded their respective competitions.

Athlete Bakunzi Aime Phraditte making his debut in the 3000m finished a distant 9th position, clocking 8:29.27. He became behind Ugandan Chelimo Oscar who won the stage event in 8:08.20 while Ethiopian Etharegawi Berihu came in second position in 8:09.17 while Kenyan Kenmuema Jackson Kavesa clocked 8:09.95 to finish third.

In Beach Volleyball, Rwanda seeded 11th finished their group stage action winless as they lost their final game to leaders and sixth-seeded Venezuela losing 0-2.

Rwandan pair of Munezero Valentine and Musabyimana Penelope lost Venezuela’s Urimar Narvaez and Diana Ramirez 6-21 and 15-21 in 27 minutes.

The loss saw Rwanda finish bottom of the table with only three points after losing to Aruba and Mexico too. Venezuela qualified as group leaders with six points followed by Mexico who have five points. Aruba are third placed with four points and also faced exit from the competition.

Africa is now left to be represented by Mozambique duo Sinaportar/Mucheza who beat Norway 2-0 (21-14-21-11) in the last pool match to secure second round place after they finished third in Pool C after Norway and Peru.

Rwanda was joined in the exit chamber by Egypt, Sierra Leone and DR Congo after they finished fourth in their corresponding pools.

Rwanda secured the ticket to the Youth Olympics in July when the duo of Penelope Musabyimana and Valentine Munezero finished second at this year’s African Youth Games in Algeria.

Youth Olympic Games

Beach Volleyball Competition

Friday Results

Venezuela 2-0 Rwanda

Aruba 0-2 Mexico