Rwanda Women's Sitting Volleyball head coach Mosaad Rashad has called for early preparations for his team ahead of the Paris Paralympic Games 2024.
Rwanda women qualified for the 2024 Paralympic Games which will take place in Paris, France, from August 28 to September 8 after defeating East African rivals Kenya 3-0 in the final on February 3, to win the Africa Zone Sitting Volleyball Championship in Lagos, Nigeria.
Going forward, Rashad has already set sights on upcoming training camps in Brazil and Germany as part of early preparations for the big event in an attempt to help team achieve better results compared to previous editions.
"The reality is that, despite qualifying for Paris, we can't sit down and think that we are done. We are going to be busy preparing for the finals. What we need most is a residential training camp and many build up matches,” Rashad said.
"We need to have good preparations and warm up matches ahead of the tournament which will be a good learning experience. Paris Paralympic Games is bigger, it’s an international competition, so we have to keep these players together, no time to sit.”
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The Egyptian tactician, who also handles the senior men’s national sitting volleyball team, emphasized on the need for buildup matches with elite teams which can help his team improve the level of performance enough to perform well during the finals in Paris.
"We have to look for friendly games with stronger teams, we need to test ourselves against quality opposition to get a feel of what to expect in Paris.”
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"It is very important to prepare well ahead of a big tournament. I believe we will improve our level because it is training that changes players and style of playing,” he noted.
With the ticket to Paris, Rwanda women will be making their third consecutive appearance in the Paralympic Games, after representing Africa in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.