adminGrading ceremony to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, in December.
The ceremony is slated for December 3 and will be followed by a general meeting the following day to address several issues pertaining to the running of the sport on the continent.
The grading is for the brown belt and black belt fighters from across the continent.
Muripo will be assisting, Shihan Bas Van Stenis, who is one of the most senior kyokushin karatekas in Africa, to assess the fighters in a ceremony that will see karatekas being uplifted to brown belt and black belt.
The Zimbabwean champion said the invitation was also a show of the confidence that the continent had placed on the country.
“I am going there as one of the technical persons to assist the Shihan in grading the fighters. I will be doing the technical assessments looking at the technique improvement by the fighters, the katas and fights.
“I have been invited for this event every year since 2008. It’s a sign that we have gone far ahead in the region and they depend on us. It shows that we are a force to reckon with and they can’t do without us,” added Muripo.
The KUZ technical director said being part of the event is an opportunity to learn new things from other fighters.
“I will be representing our fighters at the event and I believe it’s a platform to learn from other fighters because its like in life learning never ends, you learn new things everyday. I am also going to attend the general meeting after the grading ceremony. The meeting is meant to map a way forward of our activities for next year.
“We are also going to be mapping up how we will work together for international tournaments and the teams we will send to the events,” said Muripo.
However, Zimbabwe will not be sending any fighters for grading as it is expensive but they are going to host their own event early next year. “We will organise for Shihan Bas to come here because it is expensive to send our karatekas in South Africa. We have quite a good number of karatekas to be graded.
“But before I go for the continental grading in December we will hold our own grading for the juniors in terms of their belts, that is from white belt to brown belt at Raylton Sports Club on November 26.
“We will have fighters from our different dojos – from Raylton, Highfield, Glen View 1 to 3, Mutare and Chegutu,” said Muripo.
Online Reporter