Rwanda men’s volleyball team seen in a past competition started on a positive note in the African championship in Egypt
Rwanda men’s volleyball team opened the 2017 Men’s African Nations Championship with deserved win over Chad in Pool D of 2017 Men’s African Nations Championship at Cairo Stadium Complex in Egypt on Sunday.
The Paul Bitok led national team started the match aggressively using the unstable defense of the opponent before going on to win all the three sets 3-0 registering 25-20 in the first set, 25-21 in the second set and 25-15 in the third set.
Rwanda skipper Olivier Ntagengwa, Musoni Fred, Yakan Guma Laurence and Yvan Mahoro played a crucial role in earning a deserved victory for Rwanda.
Coach Bitok told KT Press from Egypt on Sunday night, “We are doing our best to qualify to the quarter final. We have to work as a team, nothing but togetherness will see us through to the next round,”
In another Pool D game, Algeria defeated Botswana 3-0 (25-15, 25-13, 25-17).
Action continues on Monday in Pool D as Rwanda take on Botswana at 16h00 while Algeria faces Chad at 14h00.
Rwanda will conclude her group matches on Tuesday when they face Algeria before Chad takes on Botswana later to determine which teams goes into the knock-out stage.
Elsewhere, Egypt started victorious defeating new comers Niger 3-0 (25-10, 25-6, 25-12) in Pool A.
In pool B, Ghana played their best to start their campaign at the 2017 Men’s African Nations Championship in the right way and beat Kenya 3-0 (25-16, 26-24, 25-15) while Tunisia rebounded back from a set behind 1-2 to down struggling Libya in a gruelling encounter 3-2 (25-19, 20-25, 20-25, 25-15, 15-7).
The top two teams in each of the preliminary pool will qualify for the quarterfinal which will be the knockout stage, where the winner of Pool A play runner up of pool D, pool D leaders face runner up of pool A.
Leaders of pool B will combat runner up of Pool C and head of Pool C meet runner up of pool B.
The winners of the quarterfinal qualify for the semifinal and then the winners of this stage go through to the final.
The 2017 Men’s African championship doubles also as 2018 World Championship qualifiers where the top three African teams book their tickets to represent Africa in the FIVB Prestigious championship.
Pool Composition
Pool A: Egypt, Niger, Congo RD
Pool B: Tunisia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya
Pool C: Cameroon, Morocco, Nigeria
Pool D: Algeria, Botswana, Rwanda, Chad
