Early kicks in karate contest
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday February 5, 2021 10:20
Bathai had initially announced he would not seek re-election, but he is now reportedly keen to contest.
He assumed office in April 2017. There is a feeling he has run his race and it is time to hand over the baton to new leadership.
Speaking to Mmegi Sport, Bathai said he has not made up his mind about
seeking re-election, but was still in discussion with clubs.
“It is not about me. My position is that I am not standing, but a few people are requesting me to stand again. However, I have achieved a lot and some of the projects are still pending,” he said.
Bathai revealed some of the projects that he managed to complete are national coaches’ accreditation programme, high-performance programme, Project 1000, chief instructors development programme, Re Ba Bona Ha and the annual policy conference. During his tenure, BOKA hosted 2018 Region 5 Karate Championship and 2019 UFAK Africa Karate Championship.
BOKA has been awarded the rights to host the 2022 World Karate Federation (WKF) Karate Series A and Commonwealth Karate Championship in 2023. Bathai said he was proud that he is finishing his term when there are 15 UFAK qualified referees and eight coaches.
In the meantime, Bakwadi has assembled a strong team in a bid to curry favour with karate affiliates.
Bakwadi said he felt it was time for him to step up and save karate. He said the sport had lost its reputation. Bakwadi said professionalism had been thrown out of the window. “Karate is swimming in a pool of confusion. For the first time in history, karate did not have nominees in the sport awards. We had kids who did well in some championships, but the leadership decided not to submit their profiles. We hosted competitions and some athletes won medals. They punished athletes because they had their own issues against the awards. That was illogical,” Bakwadi said.
He said some clubs have already shown interest in giving him their vote but of course, some are still die-hard supporters of Bathai. Bakwadi said he has a strong team behind him and he would share his plans for BOKA, soon. He said the aim is to bring professionalism to BOKA.
Other executive committee positions that would be contested for are vice president-administration, vice president-technical, secretary-general, vice secretary-general, treasurer and publicity secretary. The deadline for submission for candidates is March 25 and the elections would be held in Lobatse.