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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
NUST Taekwondo team coach Vusa Ncube has hailed his side’s performance at the Zimbabwe Universities Sports Association (ZUSA) Games held in Harare at the weekend.

Thirteen universities from across the country participated in the games where more than eight sports codes were contested during the festival that started on Thursday last week and ended on Saturday at the University of Zimbabwe.

Nust Taekwondo, which originated from Panthers Academy, managed to win six medals out of the eight that were up for grabs. They won one gold, four silver and one bronze.

Representing the team in the women’s division were Hazel Chamboko, Mercy Siwela, Tariro Madziba and Melrose Ngwenya while Thabo Mpofu, Thembalikhanyise Ndlovu, Sean Kunda and Patron Chigugudhlo made up the men’s team.

Panthers Taekwondo Club

Madziba was the gold medal winner.

Ncube said: “This was an excellent display given that we are coming from the Covid-19 period and we have only been training for a few months.

“Of course, there was stage fright but they still managed to overcome that and produced good results.”

Ncube, founding president of Panthers Taekwondo Club, believes it’s a misconcep­tion that it’s a “violent” sport, saying such a misconception has affected the growth of martial arts in the country.

Taekwondo, he said, enhances social skills and teamwork and also addresses the increasing scourge of bullying and other aggress­ive behaviours by improving students’ abilities to resolve conflicts in a peaceful manner. — @innocentskizoe