Female middle-distance runner Honorine Iribagiza has won a Silver Medal during the All-Comers Meet track and Field Competition taking place in Lusaka, Zambia. Iribagiza, who runs for Sina Gerard Athletics, is among three Rwandans who are in the competition looking for qualification for the Olympic Games slated in July in Tokyo, Japan, alongside APR Athletics Club duo Yves Nimubona and Marthe Yankurije. Iribagiza won the silver medal after clocking two 2:10.57 in the 800 m race category, four seconds behind Zambian Felistus Mpande who won the race to win gold on her home soil. Meanwhile, Nimubona, who competes in the 10 000m and Yankurije who races in 5000 will compete on Sunday, May 16 in their respective categories. The competition could this time come as the ‘last chance’ for the athletes to qualify for the Tokyo 2020, according to Fidele Mubiligi, the President of Rwanda Athletics Federation. Yankurije, who has been searching for qualification in the 10 000m distance, will be competing in the 5000m race after she and the federation realised that her times in the 10 000m distance didn’t meet the standard to participate at the Olympic Games. Lusaka is one of the centres for the African Athletics Confederations alongside Algiers (Algeria), Lome (Togo), Dakar (Senegal) and Eldoret (Kenya) among others.
