By ADRIAN MWANZA –
FOUR countries, Zambia inclusive, will take part in the 2017 JapaneseAmbassador’s Karate tournament to be held in Lusaka next month.
The countries coming to join Zambian on the pre-independence celebration tournament set for October 22 to 23 are South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
This would be the first time that the tournament would have competitors from another country.
Zambia Martial Arts Federation (ZMAF) president Munyarazi Mangaba said his organisation wanted to make the tournament bigger and had invited the three countries to come over.
“We all know how good South Africa is at Karate and it will be good to have them coming for this tournament. They will definitely give the Zambian guys a good run for their money,” he said.
He also said a number of Zambian clubs that had also shown interest inthe tournament which is the biggest event on the local calendar.
“We expect an explosive tournament because I am sure our colleagues fromthese three countries will bring in their A-game, but I must say thatthey will not have it easy,” he said.
Mangaba said the local dominant clubs expected to take part are ZN and Green Buffaloes adding many more from dotted places like Livingstone, Choma and the Copperbelt.
He said the Japanese Embassy had provided everything includingtrophies and other logistics for the duration of the tournament.
Mangaba called on more clubs to compete inthe tournament which will feature some of the best karatekas in the region.