Winners1. Southafrica2. Eritrea3. Morocco4. Rwanda Rwanda’s cycling team finished fourth overall at the third edition of the African Continental Championship held in Yaoundé, Cameroon over the weekend.Rwanda team arrives today evening aboard Kenya Airways.The four-man national team steered Rwanda to finish fourth among 16 countries at the event won by South Africa. Eritrea took second spot, followed closely by Morocco.Rwanda’s team was composed of Andre Niyonshuti, Abraham Ruhumuriza, and Nathan Byukusenge with Jonathan Boyer as coach.Ruhumuriza and Byukusenge were the Team Rwanda’s best riders finishing on 8th and 12th spots respectively. Unfortunately for their team mate Niyonshuti who dropped out of the race after falling off his bike earlier stages.Other countries which took part in the event include; Zambia, Ivory Coast, Angola, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Malawi, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Namibia, and Sao Tome and Principe and hosts Cameroon.The Rwanda Cycling Union president (RCU), Charles Kamanda told Times Sport yesterday that finishing fourth out of 16 countries is enough evidence that Rwanda’s cycling has improved tremendously.“We would have clinched the third or second position had Niyonshuti not dropped out, but still the other two went to do well and brought pride to the whole country,” Kamanda said.Kamanda further added that they (RCU) have achieved their main objective of taking part and doing well in the championship. “Our aim was to post a good performance in this event and I think the team has managed does exactly that,” he noted.The Rwandan team went into the competition hoping to do well as to qualify for next year’s world cup in Italy.But Kamanda admitted, “We have not yet been informed whether we qualified (for the World Cup) or not. But we shall definitely do inquiries with the Africa Cycling Union for further information.”Despite the good performance, the Rwandan team can not qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games. Rwanda’s chances of qualifying for the Games faded early in the year when the team finishing 12th out of 16 African nations which took part in the UCI B World Championship event held in Cape Town from June 26- July 1.But Kamanda has lost hope entirely and he plan to lobby for a wild card invitation from the International Cycling Union to see if Rwanda could be allowed to take part in Beijing Games. Ends
