Kenya and Uganda boast the largest contingents from the region at this year’s London Olympic Games.

Kenya’s squad will have 50 members mainly drawn from athletics, with a few in boxing, weightlifting and swimming.

Uganda has 13 contestants drawn from four disciplines — badminton, athletics, swimming and weight lifting.

However, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania are also focused on making their presence felt, albeit with leaner squads.

Rwanda and Tanzania dispatched their teams to the UK earlier this year for training ahead of the Games.

Tanzania has six competitors drawn from athletics and boxing who have pitched camp at Bradford College in Leeds.

Samson Ramadhan, Msenduki Mohamed and Faustine Mussa will represent Tanzania in the men’s marathon with Zakia Mrisho running in the women’s 5,000m.

Heavyweight boxer Seleman Kidunda is also in the team, while Magdalena Moshi will compete in the women’s 100m swimming free style.

Four athletes from Rwanda arrived at Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre, Suffolk, on July 8, for early preparations and in time to see the Olympic Torch complete its journey through the town.

Burundi will be represented by two female contestants, Odette Ntahonvukiye in judo and swimmer Elsie Uwamahoro.

Tanzania Olympic Committee secretary general Filbert Bayi said even though the Olympic Games would be challenging, the country’s athletes were capable of  winning  medals.

Bayi, who is the former 1,500m record holder, said “Our associations need to do more by providing financial assistance to enable the athletes to make adequate preparations for big tournaments.”

Tanzania has not won a medal for the past 32 years. At the 1980 Moscow Summer Games, which remain the country’s most successful, Bayi won silver in the 3,000m steeplechase while his team mate Suleiman Nyambui won silver in the 5,000m.

Tanzania’s representation in London marks a slump from the 2008 Beijing Summers Games where the country fielded 10 contestants including a boxer and a swimmer. Joseph Naasi Fabiano was the best placed Tanzanian overall in ninth place in the men’s 10,000m.

Team Rwanda will have 11 athletes who will participate in athletics, cycling, judo, swimming and Taekwondo.

The Rwandan athletes training at the Leisure Centre are: Alphonsine Agahozo, who will compete in the 50m freestyle swimming; Jean Pierre Mvuyekure in marathon; and Robert Kajuga who will compete in the 10,000m race. Fred Yannick Uwase Sekamana will represent his country in judo.

The performance by 27-year-old Kajuga, who finished fifth in the 10,000m in 28:03.24 at the just ended African Senior Athletics Championship in Porto-Nova, Benin, was enough to see him join Mvuyekure, who ran inside the marathon qualifying “B” standard at the Rome Marathon.

But one of the most inspiring qualifications was by cyclist Adrien Niyonshuti, who was orphaned during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Niyonshuti, who was the first Rwandan to qualify for the Games in February last year in the mountain bike event, is training in Switzerland under Thomas Frischknecht, a two-time world cycling champion.

Despite intense training, national team coach Jonathan Boyer told Rwandan media that the rider could struggle a bit in the unfamiliar short races at the Olympic Games.

“Niyonshuti is used to racing in long distances and particularly in hilly terrain, so he is likely to struggle a bit in the short distances at the Olympics. But he is a tough young man with incredible talent,” said Boyer, a former Tour de France competitor.

Rwanda are yet to win an Olympic medal, but athlete Jean de Dieu Nkundabera won a Paralympic bronze medal at the Athens Games in 2004.

Rwanda headed for London boasting of an increased squad compared with Beijing, where they only fielded four participants in athletics and swimming.

Jackson Niyomugabo and Pamela Girimbabazi did not advance in their respective 50m freestyle events as Dieudonné Disi finished 19th in the men’s 10,000m while Epiphanie Nyirabarame came in 66th in the marathon.