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Tedious Manyepo Sports Reporter
TWO Zimbabwean judokas — Brian Chiminya and Tapiwa Pavari — have intensified preparations ahead of their debut participation at the International Judo Federation World Championships set for Budapest, Hungary, next month.

The 2017 World Judo Championships will be held in Budapest between August 28 and September 3. Chiminya (19) will represent the country in the 66kg section while 20-year-old Pavari will be in the ring for the 60kg-and-under category.

Only two participants per country are allowed to compete at the global showcase. And the Judo Association of Zimbabwe have nominated Pavari and Chiminya for the task.

Although the duo will be contesting at the event of this magnitude for the first time, they are not novices in the game.
The duo missed a big opportunity to fine-tune for the impending global event when they did not travel to South Africa for the annual Open Championships three weeks ago.

JAZ president, Smart Deke, said his executive deliberately excluded the country’s world representatives from participating in South Africa since both Chiminya and Pavari needed to fully recover from injuries.

“We did not include both Pavari (Tapiwa) and Chiminya (Brian) in the team for the South Africa Open Championships since they needed to fully recover from minor strains.

“It could have been disastrous had they participated, they could have aggravated those injuries.

“As JAZ, we are very confident that both athletes will deliver the goods and hoist high the country’s flag,” said Deke.