adminThe tournament featured 300 athletes from South Africa’s different provinces and Zimbabwe were represented by Shereni from the International Taekwondo Academy in the advanced category.
Shereni who got his first dan black belt last month scooped a bronze medal in the sparring and pattern competitions.
The 24-year-old was happy with his performance and said it was his first time to compete in the advanced section after graduating from the intermediates.
“I have participated in this event before but for the advanced it’s my first time since I got my black belt last month.
“I used to fight in the intermediates and won gold medals but the competition is now different because for the intermediates it’s about colour belts and in the advanced it’s from the first dan black belt and above. The competition is now a bit higher and I am happy with my performance but it’s only that the judging was not that fair especially in the last three,” said Shereni.
His coach, Evan Brown feels his student could have done better if it was not for some of the decisions that were made by the judges against him.
“It was Zimbabwe and different provinces from South Africa. It was just one athlete and I believe he was good although I think he could have done much better, we don’t know how some decisions were made by the judges especially for sparring.
“Last year we had 24 participants for the event but because of financial constraints we only had person for this year,” said Brown.
Shereni is now set to take part in two forthcoming tournaments to be held in Mozambique and Ethiopia starting from next month.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter