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of their season for this year.
Zika president Toni Kamangira said they are looking forward to a better and bigger tournament.
“We have already sent out invitations to the provinces and we are just waiting for their confirmation.
“We have a new concept for this year’s competition, we are introducing professionals because we have had novices and amateurs competing but we now want to have a category for the professionals,” said Kamangira.
Kamangira said the tournament will be used for the selection of a team that will represent Zimbabwe in an invitational tournament to be held in Gabon in June.
“We want to select some fighters for an international tournament to be held in Gabon and is being hosted by their ministry of sports and culture. It has some cash prizes for the winners.
“We are hoping to see a big and better tournament unlike last year when we did not have enough equipment and we had some hiccups.
“For this year we are saying participants should be properly dressed for the competition and be punctual for the tournament so that everything is done professionally.
“We are expecting a huge crowd of more than 100 kickboxers. This is the beginning of the year and we are urging people to come and showcase their talent because this the period during which we select national teams to represent the nation in different events.
“It’s an opportunity for them to prove themselves. We believe that this time around we will have quite a number of provinces coming. We have Mashonaland Central, they have a new committee in place and we are expecting them to take part.
“Midlands have been showing interest, so we hope they will be there,” said Kamangira. Last year the tournament featured five provinces — Manicaland, Mashonaland East, Matabeleland South, Masvingo and Harare.
Online Reporter