Nyirabarame targets Olympic slot in Dubai

EPIPHANIE Nyirabarame hopes to seal her place at the forth coming 2012 London Olympic Games when she competes in the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon later this month. After representing the country at the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Nyirabarame, who turned 30 last month, hopes to make it seal a third consecutive appearance at the Games in the event slated for January 27. With London staging the Olympic Games in the summer, the cream of distance running has just a few months to secure a good time and national selection for the biggest marathon of them all and with the Dubai route renowned as arguably the flattest in the world, organisers expect a line-up of male and female runners intent on pushing themselves and their rivals to the limit. After two months of intensive training in the high altitude areas of the Northern Province (Musanze), Nyirabarame has shifted her training base to Kigali to acclimatize to the hot conditions which are more less the same as those in Dubai. “I have trained hard and hope to qualify in Dubai,” she said after yesterday’s training session at Amahoro Stadium. Nyirabarame was on course to sealing her qualification during last year’s World Athletics Championship in South Korea only to bow out at the half-way stage of the 42.195km (full marathon) because of a leg injury. She has a personal best of 2:33:59 but needs to cut it down to 2hours and 31 minutes to stand a chance of competing in London. Two local athletes who have qualified for the Games include Adrien Niyonshuti (cycling) and Hermas Cliff Muvunyi who qualified after winning gold in the 400m T46 race in last year’s All Africa Games. bonnie.mugabe@newtimes.co.rw

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Nyirabarame targets Olympic slot in Dubai