Maun’s Delta Karate Academy has brought home a total of nine medals from the Francistown Open Championship that was held at Donga BDF Camp in Francistown this past Saturday.
The academy won four gold, one silver and four bronze medals, after sending a total of six athletes to compete at the tournament under different categories which included Individual Kata and Individual Kumite for both Under 10 and 12 year olds.
Arona Kgaodi won gold in the Under 12 Girls Individual Kata and Bronze in the Under 12 Girls Individual Kumite categories. Aone Mhaladi walked away with bronze in the Under 10 Girls Individual Kumite and another Bronze in the Under 10 Girls Individual Kata.
Jaone Mafoko scooped gold in the Under 10 Girls Individual Kumite and bronze in the Under 10 Girls Individual Kata. Tshepo Ledimo won silver in the Under 10 male individual Kata while Lesedi Halahala won gold in the Under 10 Male Individual Kata. Rethabile Odirile Walked away with a gold medal in Under 12 Male Individual Kata.
In an interview, the academy’s instructor Calvin Thuthuka said through the competitions he wanted to test some of his new athletes to see if they are really learning, for them to gain experience and new techniques.
“I am impressed by the performance displayed by the athletes, five of them are new to the club and they had only 3-4 months training Karate under all categories,” he told Times Sport.
Thuthuka stated that they prepared for the tournament as earlier as possible and trained hard hence they managed to scoop a lot of medals.
However, Thuthuka has lamented that lack of proper training equipment at the academy still remains a great concern as it denies them the opportunity to train well. He stated that they cannot apply some techniques because they don’t have relevant training equipment.
The tournament had brought together about 12 different clubs across the country being SSKB Karate, Valley Karate, Revive Karate, Francistown Karate, Ryu Shin Kan Francistown, Thebe Karate, KOM karate, Oodi Karate, City Active Karate, Maun Karate Club, Delta Karate Academy and Kagiso Karate Club.
