|
|
Zimbabwe: Karate Union Building National Team
 |
 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Herald (Harare)
7 May 2008
Posted to the web 7 May 2008
Collin Matiza
Harare
The newly-appointed Zimbabwe Karate Union technical director Douglas Chivandire is currently working on building a substantive national team that will represent the country at major international tournaments.
Chivandire, who came in as ZKU's new technical director during their annual meeting in Bulawayo two months ago, said building a substantive national team was one of his biggest challenges in his new post.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with The Herald this week, Chivandire also spoke frankly about the deficiencies in the team and the urgent need for the amendment of the ZKU constitution so that it complies with that of the World Karate Federation.
Chivandire said the national team, which used to be one of the karate powerhouses in the South African Region, if not in Africa was of late, not competing to their true potential at major international competitions. "Our (ZKU's) biggest challenge now is to have a substantive national squad and in my own opinion, the squad should be chosen from provincial teams. "One thing which is worrying me at the moment is that people or top karatekas who I think are ready for selection into the senior national team and meet the international requirements do not exceed 15.
"And the challenge for me is to increase the number to about 40," Chivandire said. The ZKU technical director is probably the highest Zimbabwean holder of an international medal - a silver - which he won at the African Championships in Durban, South Africa, in 2004. He has also represented Zimbabwe at other major international tournaments such as the Zone Six Championships where he also won a number of medals. And Chivandire said he was going to use the contacts he made during those tournaments to facilitate for the national team to compete in more international competitions.
"My other main focus as the new ZKU technical director is to concentrate more on the international scene, leaving the provincial boards to deal with local competitions. I've made so many contacts during my time as a fighter and I'm going to make sure that I help in bringing top fighters from other top African countries to take on our national team so that they get the much-needed international exposure."
Chivandire said he was looking at contacting some of the continent's karate powerhouses such as Egypt, Senegal, Algeria, Gabon and Botswana so that they bring their national teams to fight local fighters in the national team.
He also said there were a number areas in the ZKU constitution that needed to be addressed urgently. "For example, when it comes to (holding) elections, people or affiliates are still using proxy votes and are not attending our meetings.
"And because of the proxy votes, these people are not making any meaningful contribution to the development and running of the sport. "So, we have to do away with these proxy votes and make sure that everyone is represented at our annual meetings in person in the future," Chivandire said.
He also said there was a need for every style or club to be run by an internationally certified instructor.
|
"In fact, there are many bogus instructors and so many styles that are emerging from nowhere and this compromises our policy.
"We've lost control over these bogus instructors. So, we have to put an end to this by coming up with a resolution that will make sure that all are affiliates are properly registered with the ZKU.
"We don't want people to abuse the ZKU in order to be an affiliate and get international recognition. Our constitution also needs to come in line with that of the World Karate Federation as it currently lags behind in a number of certain areas," Chivandire said.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
