11 Jun 2013

About 111 karatekas from northern part of the country both from senior, junior and primary schools have participated in a karate training camp at Chobe Junior Secondary School (JSS) in Kasane recently.

The karatekas were in preparations for the BISA elimination tournament, which will be held on June 22 at Setlalekgosi JSS at Francistown.

Chobe karate club coordinator, who organised the tournament, Musokobanji Andrew said the purpose of the camp was to teach karatekas new rules for BISA tournament and demonstrations of advanced kata.

He said they were also teaching them different fighting techniques to make them fit both physically and mentally.

The facilitator of the two day training camp was 3rd Dan black belt and also an international referee Benson Mophakedi.

Andrew noted that his Chobe team has been doing very well in the past tournament, which makes him believe that if his boys managed to bring home 10 medals from the last youth championship tournament and national grading, which was held at Gaborone in May, then they can do more.

“They can now bring 20 medals because we have corrected our mistakes and also this camp will help us to achieve one of our goals, which is to be the best team of the tournament”, he said.

BISA north zone karate coordinator, Lesedi Khachana said this time their aim as the north zone karate coaches is to produce a classic and disciplined team for the tournament.

She said the problem that they are facing is that some schools never turn up for the camps, their reasons being the lack of transport and that affect them a lot.

“Some schools do not take karate seriously, but when it comes to ball sports they do support with all they have to an extent of  even raising funds, but we will never give up with our toiling”, she said.

Khachana outlined that at the tournament, they want perfection and usually their camps helps them a lot because they have time to work on their strengths and weaknesses before the tournament.

She said other regions should start camping before the tournament because it would not just improve their results but also the sport.

Khachana further urged all the karate coordinators and dojo heads to follow all BISA rules to avoid disqualification of participants. ENDS