adminofficiate at the national tournament.
A second seminar will be held tomorrow at Gweru Sports Club and ZKU president, Joe Rugwete, will conduct both seminars.
Rugwete, who is also the union’s chief referee said they are following the international standards whereby all referees to officiate at a major tournament are expected to be updated on the new rules governing the sport.
“We are falling in line with the international practices that before any major tournament officials who will officiate have to participate in a seminar so that they are up to date with the new rules.
“The older rules stated that there should be one referee, three judges and one arbitrator for a match but now there should be four judges. The new rules have included an extra man and we need to increase our manpower so that we don’t end up having referees and judges from the same club,” said Rugwete.
Eight styles — JSKA, dentokan, toma karate, seidokan, urakashi, shito-ryu kofukan, bino-ryu, and shorin ryu are expected to fight for honours at Gweru Sports Club.
The tournament will be focusing on team events with the men’s team set to be made up of five fighters while the women’s team will consist of three fighters.
Rugwete said the one-day competition will feature karatekas from Botswana and participants will compete in the senior men and senior women categories.
“Two clubs from Botswana have confirmed their participation. This competition had disappeared. For years it has not been happening and this is the re-introduction of team events. What we have been seeing over the years are individual competitions.
“The winners will be determined on the basis of the collective bout won and the team with the most bout victories is the winner,” Rugwete said.
The ZKU president said he would step down as the national association’s chief referee so that he focuses on the administration affairs of the karate mother body.
“From the tournament in Gweru we are now expected to appoint a new chief referee because I was occupying that position and then I was elected as the president so I cannot hold both positions.
“We are going to focus on the people that will be there (at the tournament) of course there is an issue of the people with qualifications and experience but we won’t focus on that much because there have been fundamental changes in the sport. We are going to look at one’s capacity that is if they will be available to cater for our referees’ welfare,” said Rugwete.
Online Reporter