Karate scoops gold in Birmingham
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday September 12, 2022 16:00
The medals were won by Kagiso Mophuting who was competing in the Under 21 male kata. The second gold medal was won by female kata team.
The team comprised Lesego Masimola, Lethabo Sekano and Amantle Leburu. The male kata team that had Mophuting, Ofentse Bakwadi and Boemo Ramasimong settled for bonze.
The senior male kumite Under 75kg silver was snatched by Takobana Mbise. The team bagged a total of nine medals. It was a bad day in the office for Oratile Caiphus as he finished in position five in the male kumite Under 84kg. Thabang Setshego also failed to win a medal in the male kumite Under 67kg, finishing off in position five.
The male kumite team finished the competition in position five. The national team coach, Christopher Ponatshego told Sport Monitor that he was impressed with the performance of the team. He said the team overcame the challenges they faced during their travel to Birmingham. “This team performed better than Team Botswana which was fully funded.
Remember that team had set a medal target of eight, but we have beaten that target. It makes you wonder why karate is not funded when they are performing well but other sporting codes that fail to bring medals they get full sponsorship from the government. We competed against the same countries that they also faced,” he said. Ponatshego said the team could have performed far much better if they had enough time to prepare for the competition. He said athletes were disturbed by running around looking for funds.
He said the last Commonwealth championships, Botswana did better than this year because the competition was in Durban which is closer to home. He said still they were self funded.
Ponatshego said the athletes are capable, they only need support. He said some people might say karate is easy, but that is not true. He said the results are also an indication that youthful athletes outperformed their seniors.
He said people always crucify him when he wants youngsters to be given a chance in the team. In other results, Ramasimong got position five in senior male kata while Bakwadi finished in position 13. Nonofo Inambao failed to get a medal in the female kumite Under 61kg settling for position five.