Julius Mbaraga
16 May 2008
Kigali — The national junior basketball team will regroup this afternoon ahead of next month's Junior African Cup of Nations qualifiers in Kampala, Uganda.
According to Innocent Karuhije, the national basketball federation technical advisor, the qualifiers will run from June 11-15, which leaves the team with less than a month to prepare.
"The juniors have a few weeks to prepare for the qualifiers. Some of them had linked up with their respective clubs at the start of the league while others had returned to school but we expect all of them to link up at Amahoro indoor courts tomorrow (today)," Karuhije said yesterday. It is the first time in the history of Rwandan basketball that the country is fielding a junior team in this competition.
"It's true that the juniors will be making their debut appearance in this competition but that shouldn't be a big problem for them," he continued.
Some believe that Rwanda's spectacular performance in the 2006 ANOCA Games that were held in Kenya coupled with Rwanda's spirited fight in the 2007 Afro basket competitions were some of the factors that propelled the federation to give the juniors a chance in this year's CAN qualifiers.
The qualifiers will be held at zone level which means that Rwanda will have to contend with the likes of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Zanzibar amongst others. The CAN competitions will be held in Egypt this October .
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