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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE will be hoping to improve their ranking in the Southern Africa Region when they compete in the Zone Six Karate Championships this month in Lusaka, Zambia. The championships are expected to attract athletes from 13 countries within the region and will run from June 26 to 29. The event will kick-off with a two-day referees and judges’ course and the actual competition will be held over two days from June 28 and 29.

Zimbabwe Karate Union president Joe Rugwete said they have stepped up their preparations with athletes training in their respective provinces as they hope for an improved performance this year after finishing third last year.

“The training programme because some of our athletes are in school we are holding three training sessions every week in Harare and the other provinces.

“We have always been rising in terms of our ranking over the past two to three years, so we expect that trend to continue.
“Recently from the Africa Youth Games we were one of the only two countries from the Southern Africa who got medals.

“So we look forward to the continued dominance in the region. Last year on the medals tables we were third,” Rugwete said.
Rugwete, however, said it’s going to be a tough competition as countries such as Botswana and South Africa pose a threat to their quest for success.

“Obviously we would want to be the first but I know the challenge we are facing from the teams which were camping in North Africa like Botswana, they were in Tunisia.

“South Africa was in Greece at the World Youth Camp. So we are disadvantaged in that regard, Mozambique was in Portugal and we were training locally so it puts us on a slight disadvantage.
“And as usual we are the only country without government support so that affect issues of performance,” said Rugwete.

Rugwete who is also the secretary general for the zone said coaches and judges should take advantage of the two-day course to be conducted by the World Karate Federation Referees’ Commission secretary general, Javier Escalante.

“This time we have a guy from Sweden coming to coach judges and coaches. We managed to bring him so that coaches from the region will be able to take part. And our local coaches and judges will be able to go,” said Rugwete.

Some of the karatekas expected to raise the country’s flag high in Zambia include seasoned fighters such as Winston Nyanhete, Gondo Gondo and David Dube in the seniors section while in the women’s category the limelight will be on Africa Youth Games medallist Naomi Mandengenda who will be taking part in the 16-17 years age group.