22 Sep 2020

Young children from around Francistown and beyond over the weekend gathered at the Francistown Club for a tournament.

Jemima Makhumalo from Orapa Tennis Club was one of those who stole the show at the tournament organised by Donga Tennis Club, which attracted more than 30 children.

Jemima, who is currently in the national top 4, started playing tennis at the age of four and has been doing well throughout all stages, keeping her aspirations to go professional and compete at the highest level alive.

The 11-year-old girl has been focused on her training throughout the years from red ball, through orange to green. She has already won 32 gold medals, 16 silver and 11 bronze. She is managed by her father, Shathiso Makhumalo, who thanked Orapa mine for having afforded the young girl and other tennis players an opportunity to use its facilities.

“Finally we thank JOH-TECH Industries for having recognised the need and for sponsoring Jemima to the tune of P15 000 for a period of one year,” he added.

Meanwhile, Donga Tennis Club emerged the overall winners of the tournament, winning almost all the medals from the three categories of red, orange and green balls as well as under 12.

The red ball category under boys saw Rorifang Obusang from Donga Tennis Club scooping position one and a gold medal followed by Leonard Jongwe still from Donga occupying position two whilst Neelo Simanda of Orapa Tennis Club got position three winning a bronze medal.

The same category under girls saw Shatho Gwamulumba and Yaone Bolokwe both from Tennis Exploit Club occupying position one and two respectively. There was no bronze medal.

The orange ball category under boys was scoped by Mbuya Gwamulumba of Tennis Exploit Club whilst the silver medals went to Luka Sendus of Clifton School. There was no bronze medalist.

One Mokibe of Donga Tennis Club was a marvel to watch under the orange ball (girls) category as she managed to scoop gold medal followed by Malak Machenge still of Donga Tennis Club with a silver medal whilst Angel Chongwe still of Donga Tennis Club settled for the bronze medal.

The green ball category saw the boys from Donga Tennis Club winning all the positions with Tinashi Phatshwane settling for gold, Marcus Simani for silver and Azil Muhammed for bronze.

The girls’ category saw Nelisiwe Tsima of Exploit Tennis Club scooping position one followed by Maru Obuseng of Donga Tennis Club whilst Lame Letsika settled for the bronze medal.

The under 12 boys’ category was won by Talinda Sechele followed by Peo Moalosi and Levako Thatayotlhe all from Donga Tennis Club.

The girls’ category was scooped by Bashali Phatshwane of Donga Tennis Club winning followed by Mbali Qame of Cross Court Academy and Aone Sebina of Donga Tennis Club settled for the bronze medal.   

Tournament director, Lashani Madubeko, who is also Donga coach, explained that they had expected a lot of participants, but that most of the players could not make it due to COVID-19.

He said the annual tournament usually attracted participants from neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe, but that most of the players pulled out at the 11th hour for various reasons.

He said due to financial constraints most players prefered participating in tournaments within their locality instead of travelling.

He pleaded with the public to provide financial support to the tournament in order to attract top players from neighbouring countries. Ends