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SPREADING WINGS . . . Smart Deke, president of the Judo Association of Zimbabwe, wants to spread the sport to all the four corners of the country and has already taken it to Epworth

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
JUDO Association of Zimbabwe (JAZ) president Smart Deke says the upcoming World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, this month present an opportunity for them to expose their athletes to the highest level of competition.

The World Senior Individual and Teams Championships kick off with the congress on August 24 and the actual competition runs from August 28 to September 3.

Zimbabwe will field only two judokas in the individual section, with Tapiwa Pavari taking part in the Under-60kg, while Brian Chiminya will battle it out in the Under-66kg.

They will be accompanied by coach Simbarashe Mushayi. The team’s participation is being funded by the International Judo Federation, including the president Deke, who will attend the congress.

“The World Championships are an event sponsored by the International Judo Federation. So for each country they sponsor two athletes to take part and we are sending two males,” said Deke.

Pavari and Chiminya are reigning national champions in their respective weight divisions and Deke said the championships are their first step towards building a team for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

“So far these two are the national champions in their weight categories. “They are also still young, so we are taking this as a good preparation for them to go to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

“So it’s another way of starting to prepare them. “It’s a very good advantage that we are taking these athletes to go and participate in the World Championships.

“We are also looking at 2019, we are going to have the All-Africa Games and in 2020 we are going to have the Olympic Games. So this is the first step for these guys to go and participate, so it’s a good start for us as an association,” said Deke.

While JAZ is grateful to the international judo mother body for making it possible for local athletes to compete at the world event, their numbers continue to be limited as the association cannot afford to fund more athletes on their own. “It’s only because of financial challenges, if we had funds we could maybe be able to send a representative in each weight category.

“We take this as an opportunity because it only comes once after every four years. “But we have many events taking place, like every month we have events taking place outside the country. But as an association we do not have money, so it’s a bit difficult for us to send teams all the time because of costs.

“But if we are to have a sponsor, we can be able to compete in more international tournaments because our sport is actually a big sport that has events all over the world,” said Deke.

Pavari and Chiminya are finalising their preparations under the guidance of Mushayi in Mabvuku and Mbare. They are expected to fly out to Hungary next Thursday, while Deke would have left earlier on Tuesday to attend the congress.

Deke also said that they have opened a branch in Epworth after they were approached by one of its most illustrious sons Musekiwa Kumbula. Kumbula is also behind the setting up of the Olympafrica Centre in Epworth.

“We recently spread our wings to Epworth after we were approached by Musekiwa Kumbula, who wants the youths from that place to get involved in more sports activities as a way of keeping them from drugs, prostitution and other juvenile delinquency,” Deke said.

This Saturday will see JAZ staging a tournament in Epworth and Kumbula will be among the invited guests.

“So, I can safely say that our sport is growing in terms of numbers and we are also looking at taking it to the uniformed forces. In fact, we used to have some judokas in the police force and they were based at Morris Depot; and we are going to revive the sport there as we have a number of our equipment, including mats, which are lying idle there,” Deke said.

JAZ have also been courting a number of potential sponsors and they recently received some enormous support from Tobias Musariri’s Zimbabwe Motor Distributors.

“In fact, when we went to South Africa to apply for our visas to Hungary, Musariri paid for some of our expenses and we are grateful of this as his company has been very helpful in our endeavour to revive the sport of judo in Zimbabwe,” Deke said.