Duo qualifies for World Junior Athletics Championships

Rwanda will be represented by five athletes in the forthcoming IAAF World Junior Athletics Championships, set for July 19 - 24 in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Two teenagers, Horine Iribagiza and James Sugira, are the latest to book tickets for the event during the East African Junior Athletics Championship that climaxed on Saturday in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania. This number of qualified athletes will be the biggest the country has ever entered for an international competition. Iribagiza, 17, and Sugira, 19, were part of the seven-member Rwandan team that competed in the 4th regional track and field competition that attracted six countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Uganda. Iribagiza won silver medal in the women’s 800m race after she clocked one minute and seven seconds, which is two seconds below the minimum qualification time, while Sugira finished fourth in the men’s 1500m race posting 1:44:44, with the minima set at 1:49:00. The duo joins Salome Nyirarukundo, Beatha Nishimwe and Jean Marie Vianney Myasiro, who qualified earlier for the biennial international event that attracts athletes aged between 16 and 19 years. The trio booked their tickets during the national Junior Championship trials last month. Meanwhile, 18-year old Nishimwe won bronze medal in the girls’ 1500m category in Dar es Salaam to qualify for the African Athletics Championship that will be held in Durban, South Africa. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Duo qualifies for World Junior Athletics Championships