18 Sep 2024

Botswana Hayashi-Ha Karate Union will today send a strong and spirited team of young and senior elite karatekas to the annual Cape Town Open Karate Championship.

Speaking this week on the sidelines of intensive preparations for the weekend tournament, team coach sensei Ofentse Bakwadi said they were taking a team of mixed talent to South Africa to compete against skilled karatekas who had gained massive experience from taking part in top ranked world karate league tournaments.

He said regional tournaments such as the Cape Town open championship offered local athletes a great opportunity to gauge their standard of competitiveness and learn a lot from their more experienced opponents.

Sensei Bakwadi encouraged young people to take up the sport as the Hayashi-Ha, were looking to nurture an abundance of raw talent locally.

Some of the young talent expected to impress at the Cape Open include among others, enterprising five-year-old Kai Mokibe.

Zawadi Chabwera will carry the hope in the girls’ 10-year-olds kata category while 11-year-old Tema Gaborone will participate in the boys’ class.

Other interesting picks are 17-year-old Atang Motswakhumo who impressed at the Las Vegas US open.

In the senior ladies’ category, all eyes will be on the senior ladies kumite national champion Lethabo Sekano.

The 24-year-old karateka from the SSKB Champions Karate Club has been in fine form capping her impressive record with two silverware from the recent African Games in Accra, Ghana.

It was double delight for Sekano who earned a third place in women’s individual kumite under 68kg division and another podium finish on team kata event alongside Lesego Masimola and Amantle Leburu.

The medal automatically qualified the trio for a closely contested World Karate Federation world cup pencilled for Pamplona, northern Spain in November. 

Botswana ladies are the only ones from the SADC region to have qualified for the event.

Another interesting gold medal prospect is men’s individual team kumite national champion, Gofaone Mosupiemang.

Quinton, as Mosupiemang is fondly known, is the reigning national under 75kg champion. 

He scooped silver in this year’s AUSC Region 5 in Namibia and gold in the team division.

He travels to Cape Town aiming to bounce back from his last defeat to Teto Wakwena in the senior men’s individual kumite class. Ends