Rwanda junior boys volleyball national team head coach Paul Bitok has hailed the efforts of his players at the ongoing FIVB World Junior Championships in Turkey.
Rwanda junior volleyball national head coach Paul Bitok (C) giving instructions to his players. Times Sport/Courtesy
The Kenyan coach says his team is using the championships as a learning curve for future international competitions despite losing all the group matches.
“The U21 Men’s World Championship was a great chance for our players to improve on the international scene. It’s a big motivation and experience for everyone on my team,” Bitok said.
“We want to make a difference in the ranking games, so we need to do better in these matches. We will try to fight as we did in the group games, and I hope we will make it,” he told Times Sport from Izmir.
Bitok revealed that he was happy with the way players expressed themselves in the championships- fighting like soldiers which is great for Rwandan volleyball.
The former Kenyan international player noted that the championships is a great chance for the young players as well as the country because they have improved a lot after playing against the top nations in the world.
“All matches have been a good experience for us; we have never played at this level against the best teams, so it is a good learning curve for us,” Bitok explained.
Rwanda will play three classification matches, starting today against Venezuela, Estonia on Friday and fellow Africans Morocco on Saturday.
Rwanda lost all group matches to USA 3-1, Tunisia 3-0, Canada 3-0 and Serbia 3-0, which means the only East African country in world championship will play in the ranking matches.
Meanwhile, Rwandan players have impressed at their world championships, team captain Aimable Mutuyimana was voted in sixth position out of 49 best scorers, Fred Musoni (center) was in tenth position for best servers, while Peter Bigirimana (libero) came in fifth position in the best diggers (defence) category.
Classification matches
Today
Rwanda vs Venezuela
Friday
Estonia vs Rwanda
Saturday
Rwanda vs Morocco
By Peter Kamasa, The New Times