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Mutsawashe Mashandure
Sports Reporter
THE Chesterfield Learning Centre are set to crown winners of their taekwondo tournament today in their quest to push for grassroots development of the sport.
Director of the school Saira Khant said the school has recruited athletes as young as three years old in their Early Childhood Development programme up to 18-year-olds.
Some of their athletes have taken part in regional events and yesterday’s inter-house competition was a selection event for their team to tour South Africa.
“The tournament helps athletes gain some points and be rated among the school’s best, and it gives them opportunities to represent their house and Zimbabwe.
“The best are selected at the inter-house competition, and they are going for the competition tomorrow. The best winners are going to receive medals.
“We have two teams, the Kudu and Springbok. We have got officials from this association who are here to help us with this event, Simbarashe Banda becoming a black belt, and many more.”
“The youngest (athlete) is three years old, and our eldest is 18 years old. We have been in competition in Pretoria twice, and we came with 24 students. Some of the students have joined taekwondo since ECD. We are the biggest Taekwondo club in Zimbabwe,” she said.
Taekwondo was introduced at the school in 2012. Khant said taekwondo is an Olympic sport whereby students display their technical skills.
The school’s coach Edson Masakadza said: “We are here for this event under our technical junior policy so that we can take taekwondo to the grassroots.
“Today, we are choosing the best so that they can go and participate in South Africa. Taekwondo is for everyone; everyone can join.
“It helps in life by instilling values of integrity, perseverance, and self-control in participants. We have what we call reasoning in philosophy; you just impact your brain in this way so that when you start your game, you are not going to misuse it.
“We have what we call our moral culture, which was written down by our founder general, and how we live by taekwondo. So we train physically and mentally,” he said.
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