Rwanda National Paralympic Committee (NPC-Rwanda) is hosting an international training course of coaches, classifiers and referees in Boccia Sport at NPC gymnasium in Remera.

The two-day training course is slated to kick off today and about 20 participants from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, DR Congo and hosts Rwanda are expected to take part.

Rwanda won the hosting rights last year.

This is the second such training course on the African continent, after the first one which was hosted by South Africa in 2015 and they all aim at making Boccia Accessible in Africa as well as preparing athletes for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games where sub-Saharan African athletes are expected to participate for the first time.

The training course will be conducted by three tutors- two are from UK namely Craig Andrinne, Thomson Darren while the other is a South African Elsa Mattee.

"NPC-Rwanda would like to thank the UK Sports and BISFed for supporting this training course and the development of Boccia in Africa, we hope this is a big step towards the development of this sport on the continent,” said NPC-Rwanda President Celestin Nzeyimana.

Boccia Sport is played by persons who are physically impaired by cerebral palsy, as individual, pair and team of 3 players in their respective classes/level of disability. It is an attack and defend game, with two sides competing over a set number of ends. The aim is to score as many points as possible by placing their set of colored balls closest to the white jack ball.

Rwanda introduced this sport in 2005 as an inclusive sport in schools; it is now developed to the national championship level.