Eight teams for Zika tourney

Independence Trophy tournament this month at Girls High School in Harare.
The tournament pencilled in for April 16 will feature all the active provinces – Bulawayo, Mashonaland East, Masvingo, Midlands, Matabeleland North, Manicaland, Matabeleland South and Harare.
Participants will take part in 11 weight divisions – flyweight, light-flyweight, featherweight, bantamweight, lightweight, welterweight, light-middleweight, middleweight, light-heavyweight, heavyweight and the open category.
Zika president, Tony Kamangira said the event is a platform for the development of kickboxing in the country and they would want all provinces to compete.
“We have invited all the eight active provinces for the tournament. The Independence trophy has been running for the past six years and we want to have each and every province taking part.
“We have some provinces that are still developing but we would want to spread the sport to those provinces like Mashonaland West they are still developing although they have some clubs and are running the sport in schools.
“But we would like to have them competing at national level,” said Kamangira.
The Zika president said the competition has been growing over the years as the number of participants continues to increase.
“The response is overwhelming and this has become a traditional event. It gives fighters from all provinces the opportunity to meet and participate in a different competition as they are used to taking part at provincial level. It is a chance to gain experience and exposure.
“This is like the national championships and it is good for the development of the sport, it also gives the fighters mileage,” said Kamangira.
The Independence trophy is an annual event incepted in 2005 when kickboxing was introduced in the country and has become a national event.
Some of the participants who will battle it out in the tournament include national champion Brighton Tangata, Norbert Bazioni, Knowledge Marodza, Absolom Chiturumane and Cecilia Pitiseni. Tangata and Chiturumane will be using the event to prepare for the World Cup to be held in Brazil early next month. Kamangira said the two fighters are expected to represent the country at the world’s prestigious event and they have already started their preparations.
“We received an invitation to take part in the World Cup from the hosts last month and we hope that we will be able to attend the event running from May 11 to 14. We have already started preparations for the international competition with the two fighters and I will be travelling with them as the coach,” said Kamangira.