Don Bosco Shotokan Karate club outshines in Karate championship

MALAWI: Shotokan Karate Club of Don Bosco Youth Centre in Lilongwe has performed greatly in the recent karate championship which was organized by one of the karate schools in the country known as Karate Zen Malawi at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHes) Sports Complex in Blantyre.

The karate championship which attracted about 30 karatekas (karate practitioners) from across the country, made Don Bosco Youth Centre Shotokan Karate Club's best performers walk away with trophies in the kata (demonstration of basics) category and some got medals in both Kumite (freestyle fighting) and kata categories.

In an interview, one of Don Bosco Youth Centre Shotokan Karate Club senior instructors, Sensei (Instructor) Andrew Mwampita said that it was exciting to see his team making big achievements at the karate championship.

“I felt so happy after hearing the announcement that our team was the best team from Lilongwe, according to our challenges such as inadequate finances to support our team during training we could not even think of being the best at the championship,” Mwampita said.

Asked what was the secret behind the success of Don Bosco Youth Centre Shotokan Karate Club at the championship, Mwampita said that his team invested more time in training.

“Our secret was hard training and we focused much on physical exercise, basics, and katas,” the Sensei said.

Mwampita who is now qualified to attend region five karate championships in South Africa on February 22, further encouraged fellow karate athletes to work hard if they have to excel and succeed with karate.

“I am appealing to karate athletes in the country to train, train and train hard, they should never give up even when they are alone they need to train both exercise and basics, I am a busy person but I do not waste my time with deadly funnies I train hard to be the best karate athlete,” he said.

In his comment one of the organizers for the recent past karate championship, Sensei Joseph Kawerama applauded the Don Bosco Youth Centre Shotokan karate team for its great performance.

“Shotokan karate team from Don Bosco Youth Centre did very well considering it was its first time being exposed to the new rules of judging, the youngest athlete from this team got five flags from all the five judges at the tournament and that is encouraging,” Kawerama said.

He further said that it is encouraging that young boys and girls are now showing interest in karate sport and he said this is a positive gesture as far as karate sport development is concerned in the country.

“Young boys and girls are now passionate and spirited in as far as karate is concerned and this is quite good towards the development of karate as a sport in our country.

“I would therefore encourage all instructors out there in all regions of the country to spend more time with these young athletes as we need more professional karate athletes in the country,” he said.