The City of Kigali has beefed up the car free day experience by introducing new games that people can enjoy on the streets while on their routine mass sport exercise.
Kigalians turn up for the car free day twice a month, with the exercise happening on the first and third Sunday.
Mini golf, E-road biking, Basketball 3x3 and Road tennis are the new games that were introduced into the bimonthly car free day, and these will be taking place at the Kigali Heights streets.
Times Sport takes a look at the games, and how they are played:
Mini golf
Miniature golf, also known as mini-golf, mini-putt, crazy golf, or putt-putt, is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest number of points. It is played on courses consisting of a series of holes (usually a multiple of 9) similar to its parent, but characterized by their short length (usually within 10 yards from tee to cup).
The game uses artificial putting surfaces (such as carpet, artificial turf, or concrete), a geometric layout often requiring non-traditional putting lines such as bank shots, and artificial obstacles such as tunnels, tubes, ramps, moving obstacles such as windmills, and walls of concrete, metal, or fiberglass.
When miniature golf retains many of these characteristics but without the use of any props or obstacles, it is purely a mini version of its parent game.
E-road biking
Electric bikes are incredibly popular and a huge part of the cycling market these days. They can make cycling more accessible to a wider range of riders over different applications and terrains and are just downright fun to use.
E-bikes are now nearly universally accepted, the ‘cheating’ argument has fallen by the wayside as people have acknowledged how useful and varied e-bike uses can be. Whether that be aiding sustainable travel or helping groups of riders with varying fitness rides together.
Basketball 3x3
3x3 basketball (pronounced three-ex-three) is a variation of basketball played three-a-side, with one backboard and in a half-court setup.
Road tennis
In November, Rwanda introduced the sport of road tennis on the streets of Kigali, following an agreement reached with Barbados.
The signing ceremony was presided over by the Minister of Sports, Aurore Munyangaju, and Barbados’ Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Kerrie Symmonds, in Kigali.
Four locations namely Kimisagara, Nyamirambo and Kabuga, are already mapped out to host the games. There is an ongoing study regarding efforts to scale up the sport to other parts of the country.