After dominating the just concluded 2017 national championships, budding female cyclist Beatha Ingabire is not taking anything for granted as she has vowed to win a medal at next year’s African Continental Championships that will be staged in Rwanda.
After dominating the just concluded 2017 national championships, budding female cyclist Beatha Ingabire is not taking anything for granted as she has vowed to win a medal at next year’s African Continental Championships that will be staged in Rwanda.
Rwanda will host the 14th edition of the annual event from February 13-18, 2018 and this will be the second time for Rwanda to host the UCI sanctioned race.
After winning the 2017 national championship in the women category both in the Individual Time Trial (ITT) and road race, 21-year old Ingabire who rides for Les Amis Sportifs de Rwamagana is keen to replace her teammate Jean d’Arc Girubuntu as the new queen of the bike in the country. Her aim is to win a medal at the forthcoming continental show piece."I feel excited and I think I deserved to win this championship. I trained hard for it, that was the only secret, both races were gruesome but I persisted because I really needed to win,” said Ingabire.
On Saturday, she won the Individual Time Trial that was held in Nyamata, Bugesera district after completing the 25 kilomtre distance in 40 minutes and 52 seconds beating her team mates Xaverine Nirere and defending champion Girubuntu who finished in the second and third place clocking 41’:08” and 43’:54” respectively.
On Sunday, she again won the road race that started from Ngoma to Kigali covering 99.5 kilometres in 3 hours, 8 minutes and 20 micro seconds, again beating Nirere who clocked 3h:09’:15” to finish in the second place and Samantha Dushimiyimana who finished third posting 3h:09’:55”
"The focus is now the continental championships next year, I am going to double my efforts and I believe I can win a medal there,” she further noted.