Rwanda’s long distance star Dieudonne Disi has ruled out participating in this year’s IAAF International Permit meeting scheduled for May 11 in Nairobi. Disi confirmed this development over the weekend saying that he will be busy preparing for the Beijing Olympics due in China in August. “I will be abroad making final preparations for the Beijing Games thus I will not take part in this international permit meet,” he said. The meet, which was last held two years ago, received a Frw. 20 sponsorship cheque from East African Breweries Limited and will be known as the Tusker International Meeting according to the East African Standard. This international meeting to be held in Kenya is one of the five series to be run in five cities. The series begin in Doha on May 9 before coming to Nairobi. The series will also be run in Dakar, Johannesburg and Algiers. The event will be bigger with stiff competition expected from not only traditional Kenyan rivals from the region, but also other local and international up-coming athletes. Meanwhile, Disi who clocked 1:02.24 to finish fifth in the Zayed international half marathon a held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates last week has already joined the national cross country camp to embark on preparations for the World event due in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 30. Disi is also the only Rwandan athlete to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games with a time of Disi who is already guaranteed a spot in the Beijing Games after clocking 27:22:23 in Belgium’s Memorial Van Damme race. Ends
