By RONALD CHAWE –

THREE Zambian Judoka’s quest to make it to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games  continues as they  get to the mat today in the African Judo senior Championships in Tunisia.
This championship is the last African qualifier for the Rio Olympics and will run from April 8-10 in the Tunisian capital, Tunis.
The judokas in the running are Boas Munyonga, Mathews Punza who are both based in Uzbekistan and Zambian based Abigail Chindele who linked up with Zambian coach Moola Lipimile.
The three will be boosted by the presence of Zambia Judo Association (ZJA) president Alfred Foloko, who is in Tunisia to attend the continental meeting.
Qualification to the Olympics for judo is based on points’ accumulation and this is the last chance for the Zambians who fluffed at the last qualifier.
According to ZJA general secretary Mabvuto Ng’uni, the judokas were set for the tournament and were given the best possible preparations.
He said the association was expecting an improved performance than those from the Tunisia and Cameroun Opens especially that this competition was restricted to the African countries.
He said the three had been preparing for the competition since November and were in good shape.
“The ambition will be to go as far as possible in the competition and grab points necessary for qualification to the Olympics.
We expect them to do better as in previous tournaments.
We are expecting medals and enough points to push them in a pole position to make the Olympics,” he said.
Punza and Munyonga, who are based in Uzbekistan on a two-year training scholarship under the International Olympics Committee (IOCIJF), have been training together with the Spaniard national team which is Brazil-bound for the Olympic Games.
He said since only the top 30 ranked judokas go to the Olympics,  ZJA wants its judokas to take part in as many competitions as possible to improve on their standing .
As of now, most Zambians are not in the qualification bracket according to world classification hence the need to gain more points.