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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THE World Karate Federation (WKF) has granted provisional affiliation to the Zimbabwe National Karate Federation (ZNKF), which is now the only internationally recognised karate body in the country.

ZNKF was formed last year to ensure that semi-contact karate members comply with statutes of the WKF, which bars its members from having sporting relationships with other karate associations not recognised by WKF.

It was formed after the Zimbabwe Karate Union (ZKU) continued to administer administer both semi and full contact karate in breach of WKF rules. ZNKF president Joe Rugwete was excited by the recognition.

“Our recent attainment of WKF membership will allow us to participate in the regional, continental, and international events listed in the attachment. We had been focusing only on local events before the latest recognition,” said Rugwete.

“We were always confident that we would be successful in our endeavours because we consulted the WKF before we left ZKU to form ZNKF. What we did not expect, however, was the hostile and at times uncooperative attitude from ZKU, which refused to voluntarily withdraw its membership from WKF after being advised by WKF and we still cannot understand why they elected to be expelled; a decision that unnecessarily prolonged our affiliation and cost us the opportunity to participate in the final Olympic qualifiers in Paris in April,” he said

ZNKF says it has also engaged the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC) for affiliation.

“We have since applied for affiliation with ZOC, and the ZOC president has informed us that our application is under consideration. We have faith in the new ZOC board and are confident it will process our application soon.

“We have managed to secure an important partnership with OK Zimbabwe Limited and AfricaBet, who have already played a huge role in ensuring that our affiliation fees to the World Karate Federation and to the regional body are paid up,” said Rugwete.

Focus was now being placed on resumption of competitive action.

“We are aware of the huge task ahead, coming from a lockdown which saw inactivity for more than a year, but as usual, we will do our best to ensure that our athletes are afforded opportunities to showcase their talent locally, regionally, continentally and internationally,” he said. — @innocentskizoe