adminZimbabwe sent 64 fighters comprising juniors, cadets, men and women senior teams and they finished on second position behind hosts Botswana who were the overall winners out of seven countries that took part in the event. The Zimbabwe Karate Union also sent eight officials — three for the referees course and five of them were judges at the championships. ZKU president Joe Rugwete, was a happy man after the splendid performance by the national team.
“We had good achievements in three fold. In terms of competition we had 64 athletes and we got 15 gold, 24 silver and 34 bronze medals which means we got more medals than the number of athletes that participated. The team did us proud, our guys were well prepared and motivated.
“For officials we fielded the highest number of referees. Out of the eight referees three were elected into the referees’ panel that is Eugene Moody, Amos Chihlaba and myself. I was also elected the vice-secretary for the Zone Six Karate Union.
“Andrew Musiwa, Joshua Kumire, Shepherd Ziwira, Byron Ndiripo and Simbarashe Mazhata were judges at the championships,” said Rugwete. Rugwete, however, said there was need to invest in the sport if they were to compete at the same level with countries like Botswana who have become a force to reckon with in karate.
“The work we have done so far with our team needs to be maintained because if we relax and wait for the Zone Six we will throw away our achievement. We are talking of holding more tournaments,” said Rugwete. The ZKU president said they were hoping to send a team to the African Championships and the World
Championships to be held in September and November respectively.
“We want to take a small team to the African Championships in Morocco and the World championships in Paris, France if funds permit, so we have a lot of work to do,” said Rugwete. ZKU technical director, Paul Danisa, said there was a lot of improvement from some of the athletes at the championships.
Online Reporter