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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter

IT was another fruitful outing for Zim Ninja Academy on Sunday when they scooped five medals in this year’s OTW World Online Championships.

The championships were organised by Malta courtesy of the Mediterranean Karate Alliance (MKA) in partnership with Malta Tourism authority.

The medals for this tournament are given to the top four position holders.

Participants took part in kobudo, karate, wushu and taijuquan among other events.

Zimbabwe’s leading martial artist Wilfred Mashaya and his son Wilfred Jnr were among the medalists in the event.

Mashaya Jnr was the biggest winner, claiming gold in the boys Under-six karate kata category after shrugging off competition from Egor Ogay and Yaroslav Drozdov from Russia, and other participants from Slovakia and Malta.

Mashaya senior got silver in the Kobudo Short Weapons 35 years + category ahead of Vadim Serkin from Russia, Moshe Nickelsberg of Israel and Achim Haubennestel of Germany.

The gold medal went to France’s Stephane Fauchard.

Vincent Fambira came third behind Galliano Boni from South Africa and Ben Fenech from Malta, who came first and second respectively in the Kobudo Short Weapons 16 years + section.

The other two medals came from fourth-placed Prince Chabanga in the senior male white to fourth kyu 21 to 35 years and Prince Manhanga in the boys white to seventh kyu 11 to years category.

This was the second time the academy took part in the championships that attracted 534 participants from 42 countries.

Some of the countries that took part in the event include United States of America, Russia, Iran, Germany, Egypt , France, South Africa, Cameroon, Slovakia, India, Poland, Brazil, Italy, Israel, Portugal and the hosts Malta.