Karatekas to do battle in national championships
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday November 1, 2013 14:45
Shito-Ryu chief instructor Union Kgafela said during a press conference held at the National Youth Centre this week that the tournament was open to everyone.
The tournament is divided into different categories – seven to eight years, 10 to 11 years, 12 to 13 and 14 to 15 years for both boys and girls.
There is also a category for 18 years and above. The karatekas will be competing in kata and kumite.
Kgafela said the first prize for men will be P2,000 and a gold medal and the woman who will get the first position will walk away with P1,000 plus a gold medal. He explained that they decided to have prize money for women as an incentive to attract more entrants.
Dee-Zone Productions has donated P15,000 towards the championships. Kgafela said they expected more clubs to attend because they had received enquiries from clubs as far as Kasane and Kgalagadi South.
He said that all affiliates of the Botswana Karate Association (BOKA) were expected to participate in the tournament.
He said that when they established Shito-Ryu in 2013 they had to groom athletes from scratch unlike other clubs that recruited from established organisations.
The Chief Executive Officer of Dee-Zone Productions, Thabiso Maretlwaneng, said the donation was a way of giving back to the sport that had made him what he is today.
He said that he earned a Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) scholarship to study karate and filming in Australia during his days as an active sportsman.
Maretlwaneng is a five-time Africa karate champion and 2003 BNSC sports person of the year. He said that he owed a lot to the sport and wanted to make sure that it turned out to be the best sporting code in the country and that could only happen if there was financial assistance.