26 May 2016

Botswana Karate Association (BOKA) sent 57 karatekas to compete at the Zone 6 championships in Harare, Zimbabwe starting today.

When bidding farewell to the team in Gaborone, BOKA vice president- technical Sensei Mpho Bakwadi said the team was well motivated and ready for the competitions and said he was optimistic they would archive the set target of 20 gold medals.

In regard to the preparations, Sensei Bakwadi said the team prepared for the competitions training for over 3 weeks under the tutelage of experienced coaches. He also said the team carried young and senior athletes, made up of 44 junior and 13 senior athletes.

He also gave insight that the team consisted of three categories under cadets, junior and seniors who would compete in the team kata, individual and team Kumite.

Sensei Bakwadi said the association took a stand to include under 10 athletes with intention to groom them well on time.

“We used to have only 14 years and above but then we realised that it is important to start with the 10 year olds so that they were developed early and when they get to 14 are well groomed,” he said

He explained that it was important to include them at an early stage, so they had a feeling of what was going on at that stage. He said by the time they joined the junior team at 14 years most of the work would have been done early.

He hailed the athletes for having shown good discipline during their camp, saying that would help them .

After the Harare zone 6 championship, the team will head to the African Championships in Durban, SA then Australia for the world championships. ENDS