NATIONAL Paralympic committee (NPC) will tonight recieve Rwanda’s Paralympian Hermas Cliff Muvunyi and the entire delegation from the IPC World Athletics Championship held in Lyon, France from July 19 to 28. The delegation arrives at Kigali International Airport today at 7pm.
The 24-year-old Muvunyi, flew the Rwandan flag high for the first time in the IPC world championship last Monday when he won a gold medal in 800m-T46 category running 1:54:06 to register his best personal time but was later ruled out of the men’s 400m-T46 category competition due to a knee-injury.
The national champion, who was making his maiden debut appearance at the sixth IPC athletics world championship, won the first gold medal for Rwanda after beating off stiff challenge from Algeria’s Samir Nouioua, who won silver in a time of 1:55:43 while Brazilian Alex Pires claimed bronze in 1:55:45.
“He (Muvunyi) is a real patriot, he had set his mind on flying high Rwanda’s flag at the world stage and he made it. He deserves a grand welcome,” NPC chief Celestin Nzeyimana told Times Sport on Sunday.
The world champion and his compatriot Theoneste Nsengimana with their coach Eric Karasira will be hosted at Sports View Hotel for a reception in their honor.
Theoneste Nsengimana, who was supposed to compete in the men’s 1500m-T46 category was ruled out of the competition after organisers discovered that his muscles had enlarged and thus he could not meet the category’s requirements.
Muvunyi holds the record for the fastest African Paralympian in 400m after clocking 49:75secs at the 2012 London Paralympics Games.
The New Times
