Rwandan athletes are recording personal-best times at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, with improvements in swimming and a faster run that took Sonia Eli-Elohe Abizera into the women’s 400m final.
Abizera finished fifth in her semi-final in Dakar, Senegal, on Sunday, November 8, clocking 57.29 seconds. The result secured her a place in Monday’s final at Complexe Iba Mar Diop.
She cut 1.04 seconds from her previous electronically timed best of 58.33 seconds, earning an opportunity to compete for a medal.
Aragsan Mugabo completed the women’s 50m freestyle in 29.94 seconds. She also improved her 50m backstroke time to 36.33 seconds, cutting 0.32 seconds from her previous best.
Jayden Ntwali achieved personal bests in two events. He finished the 50m freestyle in 27.15 seconds, improving on 27.41, and completed the 50m butterfly in 28.66 seconds, down from 29.12.
Keza Kalisa recorded personal bests of 36.11 seconds in the 50m butterfly and 3 minutes, 6.58 seconds in the 200m backstroke.
Kean Murenzi Sheja competed in the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 200m freestyle. In the 100m butterfly, he finished in 1 minute, 3.89 seconds, improving his previous time by 4.75 seconds.
He completed the 200m freestyle in 2 minutes, 12.37 seconds, outside the 2:11.02 he had recorded at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
François Mugisha narrowly missed the Wushu final after placing ninth, with the leading eight athletes progressing.
He scored 7.966 points in Changquan and 7.863 in Gunshu, finishing with a combined total of 15.829.
In taekwondo, Françoise Uwamahoro was scheduled to face Australia’s Mackenzie MacDonald on Monday in the women’s under-49kg category.
Donatha Akimana and Emmanuel Shema have another opportunity to compete following their road races on Sunday.
Akimana finished 22nd among 41 starters in the women’s 59.5km race. She recovered from a fall to complete the course, finishing 1 minute, 47 seconds behind race winner Angelina Novolodskaya.
Shema placed 29th in the men’s 69.5km race, which had 39 starters. Six riders did not finish.
Both cyclists are scheduled to compete in the individual time trials on Tuesday, November 10. Each will race over 8.5km on Corniche Ouest, completing the Rwandan delegation’s competition programme.
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