THABANG REGOENG
The Botswana Karate Senior team surpassed their mandated target of four medals by winning seven medals at this past weekend UFAK Africa Karate Championships held in Cameroon.
Under the stewardship of Senior National team Otto Tafa the team claimed two gold medals in the individual and team kata, two silver medals and three bronze medals.
Ofentse Bakwadi solidified his status as the undisputed Africa champion by winning gold in the individual kata and team kata that comprised of Phillipe Revaka and Mohammad Hussain. The 11th ranked World Karate Federation star finished in pole position in the individual kata ahead of Michael Du Plessis from South Africa and Steven Moukassa from Congo.
In other results SSKB karate club Hayashi ha prodigies Thabang Setshego and Lame Hetanang took silver in the men under 60kg and female under 50kg respectively while Oratile Caiphus settled for a bronze medal in under 75 kg. Despite being widely tipped to bring a medal from the tournament the male team kumite made up Bakwadi, Caiphus, Setshego and Lemogang Koolopile lost in the quarterfinals to Tunisia after beating Mauritania and Congo.
This publication caught up with Botswana Karate Association (BOKA) President Tshepo Bathai who shared delight on the senior team’s achievements.
“The team did very well taking in to consideration that the competition was very difficult with 25 countries taking part. We only brought 9 athletes,but at the end we managed to get 7 medals. Other countries brought big numbers so at the end of the tournament BOKA is happy with how the team performed,”Bathai told Gazette Sport.
Meanwhile information relayed to this publication is that BOKA has won the bid to host the UFAK Africa Karate Championships in 2019.