Bonnie Mugabe
11 June 2009
Kigali — Local athletes will engage in a fierce battle to beat minimum qualification times for the 6th Francophone Games set for September 27- Oct. 6 in Beirut, Lebanon.
According to the local athletics body (RAF), athletes will participate in the 400m, 800m, 5000m and 10000m at Amahoro stadium this Saturday.
These are the minimum qualification times; in 400m - 46:64 seconds for men and 54:94 seconds for women; 800m - 1:49 minutes for men and 2:08:05 minutes for women; 5000m - 14:00 minutes for men and 16:40 minutes for women; 10000m - 29:20 minutes for men and 30:30minutes for women.
Rwanda's ace athletes Dieudonne Disi, Epiphanie Nyirabarame and Claudette Mukasakindi however don't have to compete after beating the minimum qualifications in different world wide competitions.
Disi qualified for the Games after clocking 2hours and 12 minutes in the Paris Marathon, Nyirabarame clocked 2 hours and 41 minutes in last year's Rome marathon while Mukasakindi clocked 16 minutes and 5 minutes in the 5000m of last year's Rendezvous National.
Every four years, the multi-sport Francophone Games bring together young athletes and artists from French-speaking countries around the world for a week of competition and revelry.
In the last edition held in Niger, Disi scooped a gold medal in 10,000m and a bronze medal in the 5,000m. Nyirabarame also won a bronze medal in the female marathon.
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