{"id":111874,"date":"2025-10-01T14:45:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france"},"modified":"2025-10-01T15:57:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:57:57","slug":"rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda\u2019s Niyonkuru Wins Gold in France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Rwandan athlete Florence Niyonkuru claimed gold medal in women\u2019s half marathon event of the 40th edition of the Lion Races, held in France on Sunday, September 30.<\/p>\n<p>The half marathon event, which took place between Belfort and Montbe\u0301liard. Niyonkuru emerged victorious, crossing the finish line in 1 hour, 10 minutes, and 14 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Her latest triumph comes just three months after winning gold in the Kigali International Peace Marathon (KIPM), also in the half marathon category.<\/p>\n<p>Niyonkuru, who trains with Rulindo-based Sina Ge\u0301rard Athletics Club, has been in imperious form not only in road races but also in track and field competitions. In July, she and Jean Claude Nsabimana stole the spotlight at the 2025 National Track and Field Championships, where they both clinched gold medals in the women\u2019s and men\u2019s 10,000m events.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur own daughter Niyonkuru is taking up global stages in the half marathon! This is just the beginning, and the whole village is behind you,\u201d Rwanda\u2019s Minister of Sports, Nelly Mukazayire, celebrated in a post shared on X (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n<p>In the men\u2019s half marathon category, Kenya\u2019s Vincent Kimaiyo won gold after finishing in 1 hour, 1 minute, and 1 second. In the 10km races, Reuben Siwa claimed the men\u2019s title, while Manon Coste won the women\u2019s title in 34 minutes and 32 seconds.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. Rwandan athlete Florence Niyonkuru claimed gold medal in women\u2019s half marathon event of the 40th edition of the Lion Races, held in France on Sunday, September 30. The half marathon event, which took place between Belfort and Montbe\u0301liard. Niyonkuru emerged victorious, crossing the finish line in 1 hour, 10 minutes, and 14 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":111873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[5019,1043,8245,758],"class_list":["post-111874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-athletics","tag-france","tag-lions-race","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rwanda\u2019s Niyonkuru Wins Gold in France - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rwandan athlete Florence Niyonkuru claimed gold medal in women\u2019s half marathon event of the 40th edition of the Lion Rac ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rwanda\u2019s Niyonkuru Wins Gold in France\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rwandan athlete Florence Niyonkuru claimed gold medal in women\u2019s half marathon event of the 40th edition of the Lion Rac ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-01T14:45:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-01T15:57:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/10\/sm_1759321644.179964.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rwanda\u2019s Niyonkuru Wins Gold in France\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-01T14:45:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-01T15:57:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france\"},\"wordCount\":236,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/10\/sm_1759321644.179964.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Athletics\",\"France\",\"lions race\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandas-niyonkuru-wins-gold-in-france\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\u2019s Niyonkuru Wins Gold in France - 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