Ellina Mhlanga Harare Bureau
FORMER karate world champion Samson Muripo has applauded the national team that took part at the World Fighting Kyokushinkai Organisation championships in Johannesburg, South Africa, after they scooped 12 medals over the weekend.
The tournament featured Zimbabwe and the hosts South Africa with more than 400 fighters taking part in various age-groups and weight divisions.
Zimbabwe fielded 14 fighters from various full contact karate styles and they won six gold medals, five silver and one bronze in the various events they competed in.
Pumulani Maphosa of sokyokushinkai won two gold medals.
He also got a belt after being crowned the overall winner in the challenge matches’ middleweight division.
Tungamirai Madzimbamuto and Trevor Gorah from shukokai karate weighed in with a gold medal each from the middleweight and Open categories respectively.
Brian Chiringa and Bevan Sibanda, who competed in the boys’ Under-14, also clinched gold medals. Chiringa and Sibanda are from kyokushinkan.
Joseph Mapolisa walked away with a silver medal in the middleweight section and his teammates Gram Chiwaula, Cosmos Banda, Sly Karidzamimba from sokyokushin and Sharleen Amoda from shorin kempo also scooped silver medals in their respective categories while Ian Gengezha got bronze.
Muripo, who was the accompanying coach for the team, said they did well considering that they had a small squad of karatekas and had to compromise in terms of their preparations because of financial constraints.
“There were over 400 fighters and we had 14 from Zimbabwe. Most of the guys got medals in their respective categories and it was our first time competing in this particular tournament. But most of our fighters have been to other regional and international events.
“In terms of competition, it was almost like our own All-Africa event we hosted, it’s only that we had few fighters but I think we are setting the pace.
“The challenge is that our teams lack sponsorship because when you are preparing fighters for a regional tournament, they are supposed to go into camp for at least one or two months, so that there is team spirit and we standardise the technique within the team. Locally we lack sponsorship but talent is vast,” said Muripo.
Muripo said they are hopeful things will change for the better in the future and will continue participating in regional and international competitions for exposure.
“We are creating awareness to show that we are doing something and against all odds we are sending teams for tournaments in these difficult times.
So we just hope that in future we can get support,” said Muripo.