Karate the 'neglected best performer' continues to shine

NELSON DIRENG
Correspondent | Wednesday December 22, 2010 00:00

The national karate teams began the year well winning the Zone VI championships that had been dominated by South Africa. Botswana went ahead to prove their worth by becoming the only African country to get medals at the highly competitive Africa Karate Championships held in South Africa last August.

Despite their achievements locally and regionally, local karate body, the Botswana Karate Association (BoKA) still faces problems of sponsorship. They have complained about lack of funding to take karatekas to international competitions. Only a few karatekas, mostly self-sponsored or sponsored by their clubs, are able to attend such tournaments. It is also difficult for local clubs to host tournaments, which could at least bring local karatekas together.

Furthermore, the BoKA Dojo, which began construction early this year, is also one of the year's disappointments.The first phase, which was sponsored with P700, 000 by the Japanese Embassy had been scheduled to complete in March 2010 but was only completed in November. The Dojo's official opening is expected to take place next month. Its opening would help BoKA cut costs of outsourcing venues for both competitions and training. 

One of the highlights this year was nonetheless, the intense rivalry between BoKA affiliates - Hayashi-ha and the Botswana Karate Federation (BKF).

In October, BKF members argued that the selection of the national team seemed to be biased towards Hayashi-ha, something they attributed to the fact that national team coach, Mpho Bakwadi, is the chief instructor of Hayashi-ha and the president of BoKA, Gift Nkwe is his student.  They argued that some athletes who had been sent to the World Championships in Serbia were a waste of government funds, as it was obvious that they would not bring any medals home. Both styles however promised to prove they were better than the other at BoKA's curtain closing tournament titled, The BoKA senior team club championships held last weekend. BKF won the bet with their women and men's teams winning the ultimate titles whilst 2009 champions, Hayashi-ha, were only able to retain their top spot in  the men's team Kata category.  Meanwhile, newly-approved BoKA affiliate, Ryushin-Kan's development teams have shown promise. The style chief instructor, Andrew Dobolo, said that next year they would focus on improving senior teams as well. Another newly-ratified BoKA affilliate, Shito-Ryu Shukokai, is looking forward to impressing BoKA in order to gain full membership.

Full membership would allow the style to enjoy financial benefits, the right to compete in all BoKA tournaments, and also the opportunity to have their athletes in the national squad. The year saw the retirement of one of Botswana's top karate instructors, Million Masumbika, who had served the association for 21 years. The fifth-Dan black belt Masumbika is however still active in karate as he continues to serve as an administrator at his club, BKF, which he also founded in 1990. 

The most outstanding karateka for the year 2010 was Ofentse Bakwadi who attended most of the international tournaments, including the World Karate Championships and also won the Best sportsman award at the annual University of Botswana (UB) sports, arts and culture awards.