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Rwanda: No Beijing Show
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The New Times (Kigali)
26 March 2008
Posted to the web 26 March 2008
Bonnie Mugabe
Kigali
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has denied a wild card entry to Rwanda's cycling team for this year's Beijing Games scheduled for August 8-24 in China.
The Olympics world body on Monday sent a fax to the Rwanda National Olympics Committee informing them of the bad news.
Cycling is among the disciplines in which athletes have to go through qualifiers for the Olympic Games but Rwanda, after her team failed to qualify through the right channels, applied for a wildcard.
"No wild cards will be issued to both cycling and boxing sports disciplines unless they qualified through their respective continental (Olympics) qualifiers," the fax seen by Times Sport, read in part.
When contacted, the Rwanda Cycling Federation president Aimable Baingana confirmed the bad news.
He said, "Our cyclists never managed to achieve the minimum qualifying standards and our hopes to participate were pitted on a wildcard, which we've been denied".
Another sport likely to miss the Beijing Games unless they do well at the ongoing African qualifier is boxing.
The Rwandan team is currently participating in the second African qualifiers being held in Windhoek, Namibia. The tournament started on March 22 and it ends on April 4.
Four boxers; David Nsabimana (54kg), Jean Claude Gatorano (57kg), Pascal Sibomana (60kg) and Jean Morris Bikorimana (64ks) are battling for the 30 remaining slots for African boxers.
In Paralympics, Elmas Muvunyi (100m & 200m), Jean de Dieu Nkundabera (800m & 1500m) and Lysha Kwizera are the athletes likely to take part in the Manchester Paralympics international championship in June hoping to secure their places the next Paralympics in Beijing.
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2004 Athens Paralympics bronze medalist, Nkundabera has already qualified for the Beijing Games in 800m during last year's All Africa Games in Algeria but wants to secure a slot in the 1500m.
In the mainstream athletics, which is Rwanda's main hope for a medal in Beijing has so far qualified two; Dieudonne Disi (10.000m) and Epiphanie Nyirabarame (women marathon).
However, more athletics still have a chance to beat that minimum required qualification time when the Africa Athletics Championship rolls off at the end of next month in Ethiopia.
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