Besides the home ground advantage that local karatekas had over the past weekend, they were once again defeated by the South African side.
The Botswana Karate Association (BOKA) was hopeful on winning the championship after the cancellation made by Angola leaving them as the only alternative hosts.
Before the tournament, BOKA stated that, because of the change of venues for the championships, they were going to use every athlete at their disposal so as to feature many athletes across all categories. However, this did not materialise as the South African side, once again, went back home with the first position.
Despite having lost to all-times champions South Africa, the Botswana team performed exceptionally well.
The women’s senior Kumite team became the overall winners in the category as well as the men’s Kata and Kumite teams.
They managed to accumulate a total number of six gold medals under the 8-13 years category, three in the 14-15 years, six in the 16-17 years and eight in the 18 and above category.
A total number of twenty five silver medals were also collected and a total of twenty eight bronze medals across all categories.
The technical director at the Botswana Karate Association, Sensei Million Masumbika, noted that they are impressed with the team’s performances.
“The performances were good, looking at the fact that all senior teams won and also a few of the individual categories that they managed to field,” he said. He further said that it could be noted that most of the categories in which South Africa beat them were those that they, in most cases, did not have participants as coaches felt their team members were not ready to participate.
