Rwanda Taekwondo Federation plans to organise a three-day tournament dubbed the ‘Ambassador Cup’ on September 12-14 at Amahoro Indoor Stadium.According to the federation’s Secretary General, who also doubles as the national team captain, Placide Bagabo, the tournament will be sponsored by the Korean Embassy in Kigali.Ten countries are expected to take part in the tournament. Bagabo said, “We need to have a good tournament and hope it will help our players to gain more experience for the upcoming championships.”The ten countries include host Rwanda, DRC, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon and Congo Brazzaville. Rwanda also will play in Africa championships, slated for October 25-27 in Brazzaville.Meanwhile, Rwanda competed in World championships for the first time. The national team finished 40th out of 168 countries that took part in the event held in Mexico late last month.The team, ranked sixth in Africa, was composed of Placide Bagabo [58kg], Allan Bagire [63kg], Boniface Mbonigaba [54kg], Zura Mushambokazi [49kg], Savio Nizeyimana [68kg] and Eric Nkurunziza [87kg].The national team coach, who is also the technical director, Martin Koonce, said:“We did our best and are happy with the progress of the sport, only two years after its introduction in the country.”
