US-based Kenneth Gasana has joined the national team’s training camp ahead of the 2021 men’s African Basketball Championship (AfroBasket) finals in Kigali. The two-week continental tournament gets underway from August 24 and runs through September 5, at Kigali Arena. The team, currently residing at Elevate Hotel, Nyarutarama, is training twice a day at Kigali Arena. Gasana, who arrived in the country on Tuesday evening, is part of head coach Cheikh Sarr’s 17-man roster traveling to Senegal on Friday, August 6, for build-up games with Senegal and Guinea from August 10-14 at the Dakar Arena. After the games in Dakar, the team will return to Kigali on Monday, August 16, before taking on Egypt in another two friendly games on August 19 and 21 in Kigali. England-based Prince Chinenye Ibeh, the only player missing in the national team’s squad, arrives today and will immediately join his teammates in the camp. Ibeh and Gasana were key figures for the Patriots BBC side that reached the semi-finals of the inaugural Basketball Africa League (BAL) that took place in Kigali in May, and Sarr counts on the duo’s experience when the national team takes on African giants during the much anticipated Afrobasket showpiece. Rwanda has been drawn in Group A with 11-time African champions Angola, neighbours Democratic Republic of Congo and Cape Verde.
