Online Reporter
Zimpapers Sports Hub
JUDO coach Sydney Mutero is confident his athletes will rise to the occasion when they battle it out at the ongoing African Youth Games in Angola.
Judo is one of the 12 sport codes representing Zimbabwe at the continental Games running until December 20.
Team Zimbabwe is travelling in batches depending on the competition schedule, and the judokas joined other members already in Angola on Thursday, ahead of their competition that gets underway tomorrow. The team is made up of Trymore Chikomo, Xander Stevenson, Precious Tapomwa, Tawananyasha Taruvinga and Ropafadzo Viano. Speaking ahead of their departure, Mutero said they had good preparation, building up for the Games and they are ready for the challenge. “We have been training for the past two months exceedingly hard for these Games.
“In the beginning we were training three times a week. And in the recent past weeks we were now training every day. “All five athletes are medal hopefuls. We have been training and we are hoping that if they stick to the techniques that we were working on and everything that they are good at, we should get some medals back from Angola,” said Mutero. They are not just focusing on medals but also making it for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.
“These are young athletes who still have more years in the sport.
“We are using these African Youth Games as our launchpad for the future. Mainly aiming at the Youth Olympics next year. “So, literally every athlete who is on this team is already on the long list for the Youth Olympics next year. “This event is very crucial for us. This is what we are using to measure our athletes and to prepare for bigger events,” added Mutero. The judo competition will see athletes competing in team and individual events. The Zimbabwean athletes are competing in individual events only tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the karate team picked up three bronze medals.
The first medal was won by Bradley Kadzombe on Thursday. And yesterday the team got two more medals to make them three. In some of the results from athletics, the pair of Ropafadzo Mzondo and Margret Munhungaupi advanced to the semi-finals in the boys’ 400m and girls 400m respectively.
