{"id":99003,"date":"2025-04-07T16:05:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T16:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over"},"modified":"2025-04-07T16:05:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T16:05:26","slug":"novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over","title":{"rendered":"Novic insists the title race isn&#8217;t over"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>APR head coach Darko Novic has was delighted to see his side lead the Rwanda Premier League standings for the first time this campaign but warned his players that the title race is not over yet as there is more to do.<\/p>\n<p>The Rwandan champions move to the summit after defeating Bugesera FC 1-0 in Nyamata on Saturday, April 5. They overtook Rayon Sports who slipped to second position after being held to a pulsating 2-2 draw by Marines FC at Umuganda Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is not over yet, nothing is over,&#8221; Novic told the press, when questioned about the title race.<\/p>\n<p>APR FC needed an early goal from Djibril Ouatarra in the 10th minute to win the match which Novic admitted was so difficult to achieve and it didn&#8217;t come easy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a very tough and difficult game because our opponents are physically very good. We tried to finish the game on a positive note. Bugesera is down on the table so they came all out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Midfielder Richmond Lamptey played his first game in the second round as he was introduced in the second half to replace Mamadou Sy. The Ghanaian has been out of action for quite some months due to an injury coupled with personal issues.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Lamptey had hamstring injury, he had personal issues also and a family tragedy. Now, I think is time for him to come back. Lamptey did good training in the past two weeks and he was physically fit to play,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>With 7 games to close the league campaign, APR FC lead the pack with 48 points from 23 games while Rayon is 2nd with 47 points.<\/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. APR head coach Darko Novic has was delighted to see his side lead the Rwanda Premier League standings for the first time this campaign but warned his players that the title race is not over yet as there is more to do. The Rwandan champions move to the summit after defeating Bugesera [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":99002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[758,3314],"class_list":["post-99003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-rwanda","tag-rwanda-premier-league"],"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>Novic insists the title race isn&#039;t over - Rwanda<\/title>\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\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Novic insists the title race isn&#039;t over\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. APR head coach Darko Novic has was delighted to see his side lead the Rwanda Premier League standings for the first time this campaign but warned his players that the title race is not over yet as there is more to do. The Rwandan champions move to the summit after defeating Bugesera [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-07T16:05:26+00:00\" \/>\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=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Novic insists the title race isn&#8217;t over\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-07T16:05:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over\"},\"wordCount\":292,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/04\/sm_1744029548.32579.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Rwanda\",\"Rwanda Premier League\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over\",\"name\":\"Novic insists the title race isn't over - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/04\/sm_1744029548.32579.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-07T16:05:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/04\/sm_1744029548.32579.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/04\/sm_1744029548.32579.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":566,\"caption\":\"Novic insists the title race isn't over\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Novic insists the title race isn&#8217;t over\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Novic insists the title race isn't over - Rwanda","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Novic insists the title race isn't over","og_description":"Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. APR head coach Darko Novic has was delighted to see his side lead the Rwanda Premier League standings for the first time this campaign but warned his players that the title race is not over yet as there is more to do. The Rwandan champions move to the summit after defeating Bugesera [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2025-04-07T16:05:26+00:00","author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Novic insists the title race isn&#8217;t over","datePublished":"2025-04-07T16:05:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over"},"wordCount":292,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/04\/sm_1744029548.32579.jpg","keywords":["Rwanda","Rwanda Premier League"],"articleSection":["all news","Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over","name":"Novic insists the title race isn't over - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/04\/sm_1744029548.32579.jpg","datePublished":"2025-04-07T16:05:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/04\/sm_1744029548.32579.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/04\/sm_1744029548.32579.jpg","width":1000,"height":566,"caption":"Novic insists the title race isn't over"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/novic-insists-the-title-race-isnt-over#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Novic insists the title race isn&#8217;t over"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}