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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
ZIM NINJA academy continues to fly the country’s flag high after they amassed 21 medals at a virtual tournament hosted in Kolkata, India, early this month.
The Academy was founded by martial artist and former Sportsman of the Year, Wilfred Mashaya. Mashaya has led from the front and together with his artists, they have scooped over 100 medals in virtual competitions.
Zim Ninja Academy are an affiliate of the Zimbabwe Karate Union (ZKU). They participated in the tournament dubbed The World Kobudo and Karate Championship 2021 which was hosted by India in Kolkata.
The event was organised by chief instructor of Traditional Karate-Do Okinawa Kobudo Indo Kyokai, 6th Dan Belt Shihan Ayan Chakraborty.
And it attracted over 500 participants from 30 countries across the globe including Cyprus, France, USA, Libya, England, Slovakia, Denmark and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe got six gold, nine silver and six bronze medals at the Kolkata event.
Various karate unions around the globe have turned to online tournaments in which participants send videos of themselves performing different Katas (a combination of varied martial arts moves).
The videos are scrutinised and graded accordingly by competent adjudicators from different countries. Zimbabwe have done well in most of these tournaments and have won over 100 medals in different weapon categories.
In the latest competition Mashaya, Vincent Fambira, Mitchel Machingura and Fredson Mhondiwa out shone their opponents and scooped gold medals in their categories.
Mashaya, sent his videos while he was in Montenegro where he was on a three-week long guest receiving specialised training in different forms of martial arts.
Online Reporter