The national women’s sitting volleyball team head coach Rashad Mossad is confident his team can reach, at least, the semifinals of the forthcoming 2022 Sitting Volleyball World Championship slated for November 1 to 11, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Rwanda will be representing Africa at the tournament alongside Egypt. The two countries will be represented in both men and women categories. The men and women teams, on Friday, October 14, started an 11-day final training camp in Gisagara, Southern Province, during which the Egyptian tactician and his assistant coach Eric Gakwaya will put the players through their paces before they depart for Sarajevo on October 31. “I have different targets for both teams but my target for women is to reach maybe the semifinals. I really plan for that,” Mossad said. He, however, noted that his target could be affected by the fact that his teams didn’t play friendly matches before the tournament despite his persistent push for the friendlies. The coach said the world Championships will be a good test for his teams to assess their performance standard as he is looking to prepare players capable of fighting for medals at the 2028 Paralympics. Team captain Liliane Mukobwankawe said she and her teammates are confident of writing a new story in the game ahead of World Championships. “When we started to represent the country at international competitions, we would easily be knocked out of the group stages. But it’s not going to be the case in the coming world championships,” Mukobwankawe said. “When you look at teams set to participate, starting from the countries pooled in the same group as Rwanda, there are high chances that we can go even farther,” she added. Rwanda’s women team is pooled in Group C alongside Egypt and Brazil. The men’s team is placed in the same group as Egypt, Ukraine and the Netherlands.
