The Maun traditional martial arts team recently delivered a dominant performance at the African Wushu friendship tournament which was held in Francistown, winning four gold medals, 16 silver and 17 bronze medals.
The tournament brought together 106 athletes from Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mauritius and Mozambique. It was made of different categories which included, Chinese kick boxing, sword play, broom sticks and bare hands. The tournament was hosted by Red Dragon martial arts under instructor Bethuel Mmoloki.
Maun Traditional Martials had 27 athletes participating in the tournament and the club’s Tinashe Matthys and Gorata Mapiri won gold medals under the Chinese kick boxing category. Rasul Saidoo and Mitchel Mosimanegape also won Gold medals under the bare hands category.
The team also got position one under the sword play category, position two under the medal broom sticks forms and position three under the bare hands forms. The youngest athletes from the group, 5-year old Liam Waniwa got third position under the bare hands form category while the oldest being Lame John aged 17-years old got two silver medals under staff and bare hands forms.
Founder of the club, Stephan Motlalepuo told Times Sport that the tournament which was the first of its kind gave them an opportunity to compete with many countries under different categories unlike the tournaments which they attended before. To participate in a tournament of this kind Motlalepuo said it was a sign of growth and achievement.
According to him, the experience was valuable for the younger players ahead of the Kids and Youth Kunfu championship that will be held in Rodebosh, Capetown from the 26th to 27th of November this year which they preparing to be part of. Motlalepuo added that the tournament was also a form of benchmarking as it exposed his athletes to different martial arts skills.
“One of our memorable moments in the tournament was when my 15-year-old athletes were competing against the South Africa champs aged 26 years but lost to them with a small margin of 6-5 points though they faced such a tough opponents,” he said.
Motlalepuo thanked the athletes’ parents for the usual cooperation with regards to sponsoring their kids. The founder also appreciated SKL Group of Companies CEO Reaboka Mbulawa for sponsoring two of the athletes from his club.
As a way of preparing for the upcoming championship, Motlalepuo revealed that he has engaged a certain instructor from Zambia, Victor Chiluya to impart new skills on his athletes for them to be competitive in different categories. He added that they will be training on a daily basis so that they can be well prepared for the championships. Motlalepuo has since appealed to different stakeholders to assist them with donations and sponsorships to help cover the expensive costs of their trip to Cape Town.
