Favourites South Africa and Namibia arrived in Rwanda five days ahead of the African Mountain Bike Championships that will be held in Musanze from May 9-10.

The continental showpiece, that has attracted nine countries including Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, hosts Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, will see the top two teams qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games from August 5-21 in Brazil.

Speaking exclusively to Times Sport, Namibia’s technical staff member Mannie Heymans said, "We basically wanted to come to Rwanda early enough so that we can get a chance to check out the course and get used to the weather conditions.”

Heymans, who won the first edition of the annual Absa Cape Epic in 2004, termed as the ‘Tour de France of mountain biking’, represented Namibia thrice at the Summer Olympics including the Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and was flag bearer for the Beijing 2008 Games.

The Namibian men’s elite pair of Heiko Redecker and Xavier Papo will be hoping to follow in Heymans’ footsteps and qualify for the world’s most prestigious sports event and it will be important to emerge victorious over the weekend.

Michael Pretorius and Martin Freyer will compete in the men’s U-23 category while Michelle Forster is the sole representative in the women’s elite category.

All the U-23 riders will compete alongside the elite men but will be categorized in their own category.

The pair of youngsters Tristan de Lange and Brandon Plaatjies will compete in the men’s junior competition.

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