Dieudonne Disi will only step in Berlin next week to take part in the 12th World Athletics Championships which starts this Saturday.

The national marathon record holder is currently training in the high-altitude area at the Pyrenees resort of Font-Romeu, Montpellier, France.

If Disi was to reach in Berlin sometime this week, he would definitely struggle to train in the low-altitude Berlin, but he’s decided leave France on August 18. The men’s marathon is due August 22.

The marathon race will attract some of the world’s elite athletes like marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie and Kenya’s Duncan Kibet.

However, Disi is not about to let that distract him as he tries to rediscover the form that once made him one of the top African long distance athletes.

Disi, who turns 29 in November, will compete in his maiden full marathon at the top level after switching from the 10.000m after finishing 19th at last year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.
In 2007, Disi who was participating in 5000m failed to reach the finals as he was eliminated in the heat stages.

In Berlin, Rwanda will have two representatives in Disi and Epiphanie Nyirabarame.

Nyirabarame arrived in Berlin a fortnight for a training camp at Potsdam fully funded by the International Athletics Amateur Federation (IAAF).

Nyirabarame finished 66th in the women full marathon at the Beijing Olympic Games.

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