Rwanda’s leading athletics youngster James Sugira has blamed his woes on the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) High Performance Centre in Eldoret, Kenya. The 17-year-old Sugira expressed his frustrations in a telephone interview with Times Sport from Kenya. James Sugira has been training at the IAAF Eldoret Center in Kenya. (File) The Kamonyi athletics club middle distance runner arrived in Kenya on January 24 for a yearlong scholarship under IAAF at the Eldoret High Performance Centre but says he is benefiting nothing at all from Kenya and wants to return to Rwanda. “Honestly speaking, what is best for me right now is to return home and train in Rwanda. I am disappointed,” Sugira regretted. “Before I left for Kenya, I was posting 3:37 in the 1500m but now I am struggling to clock 3:54. Instead of improving, my performance is slumping,” he noted. He further explained that he expected to train with Kenya’s best athletes and others across the continent at the centre but contrary, he trains alone and his Kenyan coach Jimmy Simba Beauttan is not doing enough to improve his level. In a separate interview, Rwanda Athletics Federation (RAF) technical director, Jean Pierre Ndacyayisenga who also happens to be his former tactician said the federation is aware of Sugira’s struggles in Kenya and are finding ways of sorting it with IAAF. Since arriving in Kenya earlier this year, Sugira has only participated in one major race, the Kenya National Athletics Championships two weeks ago in which he clocked 3:54 in the men’s 1500m failing to secure a ticket to the upcoming All Africa Games. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
