Rwanda national table tennis federation (RTTF), has named a team of two players to represent the country at 2019 International Table Tennis Federation junior championship scheduled in Accra, Ghana from April 7th to 13th.
The team will be led by Yves Ndizeye as the coach for the seven-day event who will also attend the coaches seminar under the theme, “The Optimal training to reach the Highest Performance” to be conducted by Constantine Massimo, the international renowned high-level trainer as well as the ITTF high-performance manager.
The two junior players that will represent Rwanda are male player Patrick Masengesho and Hervine Tumukunde.
Both will participate in the individual singles for both the boys and girls category, Mesengesho will compete in the Under 21 boys category, while Tumukunde will compete in the Under 18 plus Under 21 girls events.
Both players will combine to represent Rwanda in the mixed doubles category event.
This will be the first junior continental championship event to be attended by Rwanda according to the coach Ndizeye, who says the team is 60 percent sponsored by the RTTF president Jean Bosco Birungi in partnership with the Ministry of Sports and Culture.
“The mission is to test both players to give them the required exposure at the continental level since both players have won at the national and regional level. We believe this is the right time to test them at the continental level,” he explained.
Both players took part in the two-month training course held in China, won medals at the East Africa Regional Competition hosted in Rwanda last November.
Mesengesho is the 2018 Ambassador Cup champion, the player also won last years Genocide Memorial Tournament, while Tumukunda is the female champion both in the Ambassadors Cup junior and senior category.
She took part in the East Africa Regional Games winning gold in the team event and she is the vice-champion in the region having lost to the Eritrean female 3-2.
Ndizeye thinks, both players are the right candidates for this competition and will use this competition to enhance their skills. The team will depart on Monday.
Over 179 players from 21 different African countries will take part in the games. 109 boys and 96 girls have made the entry list.
