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Sports Reporter
FOLLOWING their 2018 Open tournament held over the weekend in Harare, Zimbabwe Wushu Federation are hoping to send two athletes for the 2018 World Wing Chun Open competition to take place between this month and December in China.

The tournament is scheduled for November 29 to December 3 and Zimbabwe are set to be represented by Leonard Nyamukapa and Fidelis Mumanyi.

The two came out tops at the national tournament on Saturday.

The national federation had hoped to send a bigger team but because of financial constraints they are now looking at fielding two athletes at the event with the assistance of the Chinese Embassy.

ZWF president White Mukweya said since this was their first tournament since they were ushered into office in April they were pleased with the turnout. “The event started in Belvedere where we wanted to select the best wing chun wushu athletes and it ended at the Chinese Embassy. The attendance was satisfactory.

“These two (Nyamukapa and Mumanyi) are the only ones who qualified on the selection which was also judged by Chinese wing chun wushu experts. They were very excited…we want to hold these tournaments in other provinces because our athletes were really excited.

“The response was quite good considering that it was the first of its kind and we can see that we are on the right path.

The embassy promised to stand in full support for wushu and promised also to liaise with the government to arrange for invitation of coaches from China to share with us their wushu skills,” said Mukweya.

The tournament attracted athletes from clubs, Bulawayo and schools including Kuwadzana 3 Primary, Blakiston Primary School and Dzivarasekwa 1 High who demonstrated various styles of wushu.

Mukweya said they are still finalising on the departure date for the two athletes to represent the country in China and said after following Saturday’s competition they are hopeful the sport will grow in leaps and bounds.