Rwanda’s Lawrence Yakan Guma was named the Most Valuable player of the just concluded Zone V World Championships Qualifiers. But rather than savour the moment of glory, he paid attribute to his teammates’ effort.The centre hailed his teammates for their effort in qualifying the team to the last qualifying round, which is slated for next year in Cameroon.Egypt, which won all matches, was joined in the next round by both Rwanda and Kenya. Rwanda won three and lost one, while Kenya won two and lost two.“We did well, we gave our best as a team, and we are happy to achieve this, but this is just the first step for us, and so we will need to work hard for the next round,” said the former Kigali Volleyball Club and APR player.Yakan was also named best sever, his skipper Christophe Mukunzi won the award for best receiver, Egypt Reda Mohamed, Youssef Hassan and Elkotb Ahmed were named best libero and best setter respectively, while Kenya’s Philip Maiyo was best spiker.Yakan added, “I am happy with the MVP award, but what is most important is that the team has been wonderful in this tournament. The whole team has been outstanding throughout and so this is a team award,” he told Times Sport on courtside after receiving his award.The one week tournament took place at Amahoro indoor stadium in Kigali. Rwanda managed to beat Kenya, Uganda and Burundi while losing to African champion Egypt but still qualified for the next round. Uganda finished in fourth position with one win over Burundi, who came fifth after losing all their four matches without winning a single set.Rwanda joins hosts Cameroon, Algeria Nigeria and Gabon, while Kenya join the group of Egypt, Botswana, Zambia and Cape Vert.
