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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Karate Union technical director (full contact) Kumbirai Musinami says they are looking at reviving their teams when they host the third All-Africa So-Kyokushin Karate Championships next month as the event returns after a two-year break.

The tournament, which is hosted by the Zimbabwe So-Kyokushin Karate-Do Organisation, was first held in 2015 and returns to the Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex on July 27 and 28 with South Africa, Zambia and Swaziland expected to grace the competition.

Musinami said they want to rebuild their full contact teams after failing to impress in several regional events this year including at the ACKO Regional karate tournament in Thokoza, South Africa, last month where the hosts dominated.

“So, it’s basically going to be more of regional. But we are mostly focusing on our own athletes because we have noticed that our medals tally went down a little bit at regional and international tournaments.

“So we want to try and rebuild, we are aggressively training. All our fighters have been training since they came back from Thokoza and we didn’t take a break.

“Locally from our own fighters, we are looking at a number of not less than 200 fighters, then we have got confirmation from South Africa, Zambia as well as Swaziland. We do not have the actual figures of the athletes coming but they just confirmed that they will be participating,” said Musinami.

The tournament is open to all full contact styles and Musinami said they are already planning for next year and the tournament is key in shaping their roadmap.

“When we host our tournaments, we invite everyone who does full contact because we use these events to select our national teams.

“Soon after this tournament we are going to start on a national training calendar preparing for next year. We have already discussed with some styles towards that and so basically for this tournament, the focus is for us to rebuild our team to return to our best standards.

“In terms of preparation, we are going to host it at the same venue, the Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex. Our development team is already running around in terms of securing medals and trophies to be in place in time of the tournament,” said Musinami.

The ZKU technical director said they had to put the tournament on hold for the last two years due to some financial constraints and focus on international competitions but they are looking forward to another exciting event this year.