15 Aug 2023

Botswana has sent a team of three karatekas to participate in the 2023 African Karate Federations Union senior, junior and cadet championships starting Thursday in Casablanca, Morocco.

Nearly 500 best karatekas from 27 countries in Africa will fight for gold at the flagship event in the continent’s karate calendar from all categories.

The event will be staged at the state-of-the-art Palais des Sports Med V arena to crown the new continental champions.

Speaking from their base in the Port city of Morocco national team coach, Sensei Ofentse Bakwadi said the team comprised of fine youthful talent in Kao Nsala, Gabriel Molefe and Lefika Mooketsi.

He said the team had been pushing hard at training since returning from the recent Zone VI tournament in Durban.

The coach said they never took a break after an impressive performance from the regional championship and was impressed by the character and hunger of the development team.

Sensei Bakwadi said the continental championship came at the right time for the youthful team to gain the necessary exposure.

All the three athletes are 17-years-old and will participate in team kata and individual kumite categories and the African championship being their maiden continental tournament.

Nsala carries the nation’s hope both in kumite and in team kata where he will form a deadly combination with Molefe and Mooketsi. He is the national kata champion in both kata and kumite for boys under 17 and is the current champion in the zone VI individual kumite.

He is likely to face tough opposition in the likes of Tijani Lamoum of Morocco, Justin Scholtz of Namibia and Egyptian Ahmed Elbazy.

Molefe scooped zone VI gold for many years now and he will be buoyed by his recent performance in South Africa.

Mooketsi did well in the individual kumite where he was stopped in the finals and settled for silver. 

The trio will come face to face with Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and Tunisia in the knockout stages of the team kata category.

They will also take part in the individual kumite Under 68kg, Under 61kg and 68kg categories. Ends