Sunday: Semi-finalsGisagara vs Gatagara-HuyeIntwali-Gasabo vs Gicumbi The National Paralympic Committee is set to organise the inaugural Sitting Volleyball Memorial tournament on June 9 at the NPC Gymnasium at Amahoro National Stadium. The tournament will attract the top four teams in the country. According to NPC officials, no foreign teams have been invited for the one-day competition due to lack of enough funds. The teams to compete in the tournament are the top four of the recently ended National championship that was won by Gisagara. The three others include; Intwali from Gasabo, Gatagara from Huye and Gicumbi. National Paralympic Committee president, Celestin Nzeyimana told Times Sport, “This is the inaugural tournament and we intend to make it an annual event.” “Sitting volleyball is new in the country as it was first introduced in 2008, which means no individuals associated to the sport were killed during 1994 Genocide against Tutsi but we have got Paralympians, who were physically handicapped by the atrocities of the genocide,” he explained. He added, “It is also a good opportunity for us (Paralympians) to show how far we have gone towards the self-reliance.” Nizeyimana, who replaced Dominique Bizimana as NPC boss noted that resources allowing, they plan to expand the tournament to make a regional competition by inviting foreign teams next year. “We want to invite teams from Uganda and Burundi, then starting in 2015, we will start to invite teams elsewhere in Africa,” he said. According to the schedule, the two semi-finals will be played on Saturday morning, while the third place playoff and final will take place in the afternoon. The event has received support from Rwanda Governance Board (RGD).
