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Sports Reporter
ZIM Ninja Academy founder Wilfred Mashaya has expressed satisfaction with the progress they have made in preparing for the International Combat Organisation (ICO) World Championships to be staged in Frankfurt, Germany next month.
The competition is due to take place from October 11 to 13.
The academy has a 20-member team — 18 athletes and two officials expected to participate in kobudo which includes traditional weapons, freestyle weapons, creative weapons, and advanced weapons.
“The participants include eight kids —four boys and four girls. Then we have got three ladies, seven male adults, and two officials.
“Preparations are going well though we are facing some financial challenges but we are dealing with what we have and we have been training every day, even on weekends.
“This tournament is huge. It’s big and it requires hard work and dedication . . . So the preparations are going very well and for the kids, the parents are cooperating very well.
“After school in their free time, they come they train. But usually on weekends that’s when we capitalise on our kids,” said Mashaya.
Mashaya said after successfully participating at last year’s event in England together with Vincent Fambira, he be-lieves they can achieve more with a bigger team.
Mashaya and Fambira picked 11 medals at the event.
“We started preparing for Germany last year, after myself and I came from England after winning the World Championships that was when it was advised that this year it was going to be held in Germany.
“And having conquered England I saw that preparations had to start early, so I can say we started last year in October after England that is when I started building up the team training.
“We had a team of 30 but by the time the invitation letter was prepared the other 10 didn’t have passports, so we had to deal with 20 who had passports.
“We can say now we have lots of people in kobudo in Zimbabwe. We have more than 50 actually who can do kobudo.
But we chose 30 who were now good to compete at the international level though we are now left with 20 who were on the final list.
“So, I can say we have been training for a long time but for the last four months, the training became intense and rigorous. Now we can safely say the team is geared to compete with other participants from the world.
“So, we just appeal to the corporate world for support, to chip in and sponsor our team which has been winning. We have been doing well for our nation Zimbabwe and we hope to continue doing that through the talent that we have in weapons.”
Team
Women: Simone Mfiri, Shamiso Makombe, Tariroyashe Ndhlovu.
Men: Wilfred Mashaya, Vincent Fambira, Prince Mpofu, Brian Shepeni, Fredson Mhondiwa, Allen Badzarigere, Tapiwa Ngwenya.
Boys: Wilfred Junior Mashaya, Takudzwa Chizema, Arnold Mudzengerere, Brian (Jnr) Mupindu.
Girls: Thandeka Moyo, Anenyasha Hove, Anotida Hove, Dean Gwatah.
Officials: Joselyne Muchenje, Humphrey Vambe.
Online Reporter