National Sports

Judo dreams of golden debut at Zone VI

Judo national coach Frank Msoliza has said his nine-member squad is aiming for gold at their first appearance at the Zone V1 Games slated for Lusaka, Zambia in December.

Judo is the only sport to make first appearance for Malawi at the Zone V1 Games among eight disciplines that have been camping for a week at Sports Council in Blantyre until Saturday.

“We launched the sport in the country last year, but we have built some athletes into medal hopefuls. Out of our nine camping athletes, we expect five to win gold at the Games,” said Msoliza.

The judo athletes include Emmanuel Ndau, Bosco Kachigamba, Enerst Meya, Shadreck Mkwepu, Richard Kathumba, Chifundo Black, Pilirani Sambani, Harriet Boniface and Finless Kangola.

Judo is similar to taekwondo only that it bars athletes from using body as weapon. For one to gain points, they have to grab and throw an opponent down.

Sports Council has been holding the camp training for at least 100 athletes from judo, football, netball, basketball, athletics, boxing, tennis and swimming. Boxers will camp until next Wednesday because they started late.

According to Sports Council executive officer Griffins Longwe, they planned to have initial two-week training before the final camping in October, but they reduced it to a week to suit the budget.

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