Chronicle Editor
Tadious Manyepo, Harare Bureau
AN eventful decade which started with the staging of the Fifa World Cup on the doorstep in South Africa ushered in a new crop of sportspersons in Zimbabwe who have undoubtedly put the country on the world’s sporting map.
Just a year before 2010, an articulate boxer, Charles Manyuchi launched his professional career in the ring while karate star Samson Muripo became the first African to win a world title at the Kyokushin Karate World Cup in Japan as the pair would dominate headlines in the local newspapers in the next 10 years.
Warriors talisman Khama Billiat was still a promising academy novice at the Aces Youth Soccer Academy before he was loaned to Caps United a year later where he began writing a success story which would put him amongst the best in the continent in January 2017.
The likes of motocross ace Tanya Muzinda, kobudo maestro Wifred Mashaya, who has just been entered into the Barcelona and London Halls of Fame, footballer Knowledge Musona and wheelchair racing sensation Margaret Bangajena all helped put Zimbabwe on the world’s sporting map in the just-ended decade.
Serial Olympic gold medallist and now Youth, Arts, Sports and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry also weighed in with four gold and as many silver medals in the 2011 All-Africa Games before returning to clinch three gold medals at the same event four years later.
But it is the trio of Muripo, Manyuchi and Billiat, who stood head and shoulders above the rest as they did significantly well in their respective sport codes.
After becoming the first one to defeat Mordecai Donga, who immediately announced his retirement soon after that loss in 2012, Manyuchi went on to challenge for the World Boxing Council (WBC) International in the welterweight category.
He beat Patrick Allotey to the crown in 2014 before he successfully defended that title against David Caceres in Lusaka, Zambia, the same year on his way to be voted the Sportsperson of the Year.
The now 31-year-old again managed to retain the belt against Italy’s Gianluca Frezza, a year later.
He would advance his career, to claim the WBC silver welter-weight crown after beating Dmitry Mikhailenko via a unanimous decision.
He wouldn’t repeat the feat in March 2017 when hitting the canvas as his tactics failed him against Uzbek Qudratillo Abdukarov, who snatched the title in place of the highly-rated Zimbabwean.
And the Chivhu-based pugilist took a rest before deciding to come back in May 2019 when he beat Argentine Pablo Ezequel Acosta by a technical knock-out at the Harare International Conference Centre.
And after all the toil, Manyuchi would finally become the first world champion from Zimbabwe when he beat Diego Gallardo of Argentina to claim the World Boxing Federation middleweight title in Harare in September 2019.
The fighter’s record stands at an impressive 23-4-1.
On the other hand, Billiat, the diminutive Warriors and Kaizer Chiefs star did so well to deserve his place amongst the top three performers in the just-ended season.
Yet, one would have been forgiven for dismissing him after watching him perform awfully in the first three games he played for Caps United before he moved to South African Premiership side Ajax Cape Town in 2010.
Billiat came on as a second half substitute in the match Caps United drew against then newly promoted Douglas Warriors.
Former Caps United and Warriors midfielder Tafadzwa Rusike would mockingly remark that “Look at the player which the coach (Lloyd Chitembwe) introduced in that Douglas Warriors match to change its complexion”
But no sooner had he been regarded as a flop did Billiat start to make waves in South Africa.
The Mufakose-born footballer was easily the star of Mamelodi Sundowns’ Caf Champions League success story in 2016 when the team virtually swept the board in their local league before becoming the only club to taste continental glory from Southern Africa this century.
Billiat was duly named the Footballer of the Year, Players Player of the Year as well as the Midfielder of the Year before he controversially settled for second place in the Caf Player of the Year award for players plying their trade in the continent.
Ironically, the player to win that accolade, Dennis Onyango, who was his teammate at Sundowns had failed to capture either the Player of the Year or the Players Player of the Year award back in South Africa.
Nevertheless, Billiat still remains the only Zimbabwean to achieve that feat.
But, it is Muripo, who takes the stick for The Herald’s Sportsperson of the Decade award.
The karateka has either won a silver or gold in world competitions consistently throughout the decade.
After becoming the first African to win a world title in 2009, Muripo has never looked back.
He was the heavyweight champion in the 2013 So-Kyokushin Union Karate tournament held in China.
He would follow that up with another polished performance when he snatched gold in the Men’s 35 years-plus Open weight section in the third So-Kyokushin karate international tournament in China, the same year he won the Sportsperson of the Year award here in Zimbabwe.
In the fourth Ohishi Cup So-Kyokushin international tournament held in Iran in 2018, Muripo again walked out the winner in the 35 to 40 years, Open-weight category.
That was the first of a hat-trick of gold medals that same year as he went on to clinch the Young Kumite Men’s Open pool in the 49th All Japan karate as well as in the IKOKU international full contact tournament in South Africa.
Unlike Manyuchi, whose WBF title is not as important as the WBC crown and other organisations in terms of rating, Muripo’s prizes are the highest in the sport.
And of course, he would wrap the decade with yet another World Cup title which he claimed in the Veterans category in Moscow, Russia on October 6, 2018.
Fittingly, he dedicated that honour to his father who was buried back home while he pursued the global title in Russia.
Muripo said he owes everything to God.
“I am humbled for what God has done to my career. It needs training, training and more training. Discipline is a virtue and I will be happy to produce karatekas who will take the sport further,” he said.
Muripo is currently the Africa Development Officer for the International Karate Organisation Kykushinkaikan: World So-Kyokushin.
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