Home Sports Commonwealth Games: Rwanda draws New Zealand in Beach Volleyball

Commonwealth Games: Rwanda draws New Zealand in Beach Volleyball

by Bonnie Mugabe
8:35 am

Charlotte Ndayisenga and Denyse Mutatsimpundu seen celebrating African championship victory in Sierra Leone last year. the duo will represent Rwanda at the Commonwealth Games

Rwanda’s beach volleyball team has been drawn against New Zealand in the first ever Beach Volleyball competition to be held at the Commonwealth Games due in  Goldcoast, Australia from April 6-9, 2018.

In the draw ceremony held on Tuesday at the Coolangatta Beachfront, Rwanda was placed in Group C alongside favourites New Zealand, Vanuata and Singapore. Group B is comprised of Canada, England, Trinidad and Tobago as well as Fiji while Group A has hosts Australia, Scotland, Grenada and Cyprus respectively.

Rwanda beach volleyball team comprised of Charlotte Ndayisenga and Denyse Mutatsimpundu qualified for the Commonwealth games in October last year after winning the African Championships held in Sierra Leone.

During the draw ceremony for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) Beach Volleyball competition saw the 12 competing nations for both the men’s and women’s competitions drawn into three pools.

The bottom eight ranked teams were randomly drawn into three pools, joining the top four ranked teams who were placed into the three pools in a snaking pattern according to their current FIVB Word Rankings.

The allocated pools will determine the match schedule for the preliminary round-robin stage of the competition, with each team to play every other team within their pool once.

The preliminaries run from 6-9 April before culminating with the Quarter finals, Semifinals and Gold and Bronze Medal Matches from 10-12 April, with all matches to be held at the 4000-seat capacity Coolangatta Beachfront venue.

The three pools determined today for the women’s and men’s competitions are listed below:

Competition Pools:

Pool A; Australia, Scotland, Grenada, Cyprus

Pool B: Canada, England, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji

Pool C: New Zealand, Vanuatu, Singapore and Rwanda