adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THREE taekwondo athletes left the country on Thursday for the Confederation of Southern Africa Taekwondo Association Ambassadors Cup tournament starting this morning in Pretoria, South Africa.
Admire Tshitshiliza (fin weight), Brian Nduna (flyweight) and Vusimuzi Ncube (featherweight) will be joined by South Africa-based Elton Mumvumba (bantam weight) at the tournament.
Athletes from Botswana, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and the hosts will fight for honours in various weight categories.
Zimbabwe Taekwondo Association vice president, Wickliff Mutambanengwe, said the tournament was vital for their athletes as they begin preparations for the 2015 All-Africa Games and World Championships.
“It started in 1994 and Zimbabwe hosted the event in 1996. We last participated in the tournament a long time ago, in 2006, when we got silver and gold, we were actually third.
“We were supposed to have hosted it last year but we couldn’t because of the Olympics.
‘This tournament is quite vital for us especially with the preparations for the All-Africa Games and the World Championships,” said Mutambanengwe.
Mutambanengwe said they are expecting the team to do well despite the fact that they have not been taking part in this event since 2006.
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