Duo saddened to miss ‘dream opportunity’

RWANDA’s Junior Beach Volleyball team due of Denise Mutatsimpundu and Charlotte Nzayisenga was left fuming after Canada denied them visas to compete at the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH Junior World Championships.The dynamic duo qualified for their maiden World championships after winning the African qualifying tournament held in Lome, Togo in June, but did not get the opportunity to compete against the best in the world after the Canadian embassy in Nairobi denied the Rwandan delegation visas.Canada, the hosts, also denied visas for teams from Burundi, Togo, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Guinea Conakry, Morocco and Ghana. Only one African team, South Africa participated.Times Sport caught up with Rwanda’s team Denise Mutatsimpundu, who expressed her disappointment at the missed breakthrough at the international level.“It was a dream opportunity for us, and you know such chances don’t come very often, so for me we missed a great opportunity to participate in a world competition. This was going to be the best way to end our junior careers,” noted Mutatsimpundu.She added, “After wining the African championship, our confidence was high and we believed we could actually go and achieve more great things at the world stage but it wasn’t to be.”“Of course it was disappointing and a shock to when we learnt that we had been denied visas. It hurts, and after losing that dream opportunity, we have decided to work even harder for future competitions, after all this is not the end of the world,” she said.The duo is planning to progress to the senior level.“We are ambitious and want to participate in every competition. It really feels bad to end this part of our career without playing in such a big competition to add to the gold medal we won at the Africa junior championships,” noted the 19-year old.The Rwandan duo shocked their South African opponents 2-0 (21-15, 23-21), who were hot favourites to win the African title two months ago in Lome.It was the first ever gold medal success in the history of Rwandan Indoor and Beach Volleyball. Switzerland emerged the winner of the women’s title, while Poland took the men’s crown, at the world competition in Canada.

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Duo saddened to miss ‘dream opportunity’