Windhoek

The Namibian Karate Union’s team of Karatekas finished in a commedable overall 3rd place at the African Regions 5 (formerly zone six) Championship in Johannesburg, South Africa recently.

Apart from hosts South Africa and Namibia, the tourney attracted a total number of five countries with Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe completing the lineup.

South Africa took first place with Botswana coming in at second while Namibia ended third, Mozambique and Zimbabwe had to pick up the pieces for 4th and 5th places respetively.

The competition proved a tough nut to crack for the Karatekas with hosts South Africa and Botswana coming out tops after showing great experience. However, the Namibian juniors and Under 13 years young karatekas managed to stifle their dominance when they clinched gold and silver medals.

At Least, Namibia managed to produce new Zone Six Champions courtesy of Kumite Titus Nakambonde, who improved from his bronze medal anchieved last year in Zambia to a gold medal, while the experienced Freddy Mwiya Jr retained his Kumite title, he won in 2012 and 2013.

In the Kata Category, Katelin Martin and Rassie Esterhuisen reached the final in a very tense contest and won silver medals each. Another great performance came from Herman Van Zyh, Nicolaas Swart, Nathan Lespoldt, Shakira Stein, Leo Zhang And Alexander Neidel, who all claimed slver Medals.

Head Coach of Delegation (HoD) Shihan Freddy Mwiya, expxresed satisfaction with the team’s overall performance saying the future looks good for Karate-Namibia, though admitting that there are still some rough edges that needs to be polished in the senior division, Mwiya added that plans are underway for preparations ahead of the All Africa Games.