12 Jul 2019

Botswana national karate team got off to a disappointing start at the ongoing Union Federation of Africa Karate (UFAK) championships at the University of Botswana Indoor Sport Arena.

A gold medal hopeful in the junior male kata, Kagiso Mophuting, was knocked out in the first round while in the female junior kata, Melrose Phuti, was booted out in the second round.

Former Africa individual kata champion, Ofentse Bakwadi, was expected to start the ball rolling for the team, but settled for the third sport in the senior men individual kata. 

It was heartbreak for defending champion and South African, Michael Duplesis as Bakwadi beat him to a bronze medal.

Botswana’s woes continued in the female individual kata as another gold medal hopeful, Lame Hetanang, suffered a muscle pull in the second round of her category. She was disqualified in the process.

Bakwadi teamed up with Vincent Magalie and Boemo Ramasimong in team kata and they beat South Africa in the bronze medal match while Egypt, Morocco and Algeria continued their dominance.

Hope was nearly restored in the female team kata where an impressive formation of Centy Kgosikoma, Entle Maungwa and Lesego Masimola teamed up.

They came second after Algeria in the preliminaries but fell short of glory and settled for the third spot after edging out Cameroon in the second round. ENDS