RWANDAN cyclists posted mixed results in the 145km cycling road race to finish third overall behind South Africa and Liberia in the All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique.

National team captain Adrien Niyonshuti, who has already qualified for next year’s Olympic Games in the mountain bike category finished ninth clocking three hours, forty two minutes and forty one seconds coming five minutes behind South Africa’s Nolan Hoffman.

Gasore Hategeka was the second placed Rwandan finishing in 12th in a time of 3:51:57; Nicodem Habiyambere finished 18th in 3:37:36; Innocent Uwamungu finished in 24th position clocking 3:57:37, the same time Emmanuel Rudahunga clocked as he finished the race on 25th position.

South African trio of Hoffman, Jay Thomson and Reinhardt Janse Van Ransburg settled for gold, silver and bronze respectively.

Niyonshuti said yesterday, "It was a good race for me but even though I never won any medal, I’m happy with the general performance.”

"We are happy for having staged a good performance for our country. In the time trial we finished fifth and this time round we finished third overall in the competition,” added Niyonshuti.

Lady hoops secure 7th place

Meanwhile, the women basketball team settled for seventh position after overcoming Algeria 72-59 in the final classification match yesterday.

Mahoro Laetitia was the team’s top scorer with 19 points, Jackie Musabe with 17 points, Monic Williams with 12 points and Anderson Tierra with 11 points.

Elsewhere, the men’s beach volleyball team kicked off their campaign losing 0-2 to Algeria in the beach volleyball competition yesterday.

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