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BULAWAYO Bowling Club is the venue for the Lysavay Zimbabwe Japan Karate Association (JKA) Team Championships tomorrow.
The tournament is expected to attract competitors from across the country, who practise the Shotokan karate style.
This year’s championship is unique in that it will feature mixed male and female competitors in the same teams.
Each team will be made up of two male and a female competitor, which, according to organisers of the tournament, is meant to encourage more female participation.
“Not many women do karate. Of those, only a few actually compete and we would like to break this barrier. Men and women can compete alongside each other, although in this case, females will fight against other females in opposing teams, save for the Kata category where it’s team versus team, not individual versus individual,” said Zimbabwe JKA president Allan Sibanda.
Competitors will battle it out in the Kata and Kumite categories, while children will be given a chance to compete individually.
The tournament will see competitors from Gweru, Kwekwe and Harare coming up against emerging talent from Bulawayo, some of them drawn from the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), which has lately been doing well in karate competitions.
Emerging talent to watch from Bulawayo includes Tinashe Gwasera, Julius Dzikiti, Tapiwa Chari and Archibald Mutumhe.
The team championship offers a good platform for Zimbabwe JKA selectors to select teams that will represent the country at the JKA/WF Africa Cup scheduled for South Africa in August.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe JKA chief instructor Phibion Mudzenda recently attended a training camp in Tokyo, Japan, where Zimbabwe, among other JKA affiliates, was granted authorisation to grade karatekas up to First Dan black belt.
Online Reporter