The Kenya national Tae Kwon do team
By Pauline Ndonga
Kenyan Tae kwon do contingents set the Kenyan flag high when they participated in the 9th Turkish Open Kyorugi Championship which took place in Antalya, Turkey.
This was a three days open championship with 227 teams participating globally, drawn from 25 countries. Out of the 227, fourteen were national teams and only four teams were from Africa. The African countries represented in the championship are Niger, Morocco, Central Africa Republic, and Kenya.
Kenya was represented in the Open by Milka Alango, Shawn Michael, Innocent Wafula, Mary Mureu, Sharon Wakoli and Everlyn Aluoch.
The tae kwon do players participated in the lightweight women, featherweight men, middleweight men, featherweight women, Bantamweight women and middleweight women categories respectively.
The team manager Nesmus Mbati said it was a good build-up experience before they embark on the 2024 Olympics games.
“We believe and pray that our players will get a good experience as we commence our build-up matches for the 2024 Paris Olympic journey,” said ex-corporal Nesmus Mbati, the team manager.
The open was G-rated. It was a G2 event where each participant earns themselves two points depending on their performance in the match and is then rated globally. All the Kenyan athletes earned the points which will help them attain ranks on accumulation, in preparation for the year 2024 Paris Olympics
Being a Kyorugi, each athlete lasted two to three minutes in the ring. The matches took place on two consecutive days, starting with the women’s categories. All opponents were from Turkish teams. Sharon lost 25-9, Milka lost 14-13 and Everlyn lost 18-3. The other three played a by-match which included the second rounds only.
“We had a great experience. Our attack game is good but we need to improve and that is what we are going home to do,” said Milka Alango, the Olympian who formally represented Kenya in Beijing.
According to Mr. Nesmus Mbati, the Kenyan team came out strongly. He said that the skills they gain when they compete with more skilled athletes in such championships will help them as they prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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