Karate team bullish ahead of Morocco games

The national karate team has converged at the Kasarani Stadium Monday where they will be camping for two week before they head to Morocco for the All Africa Games.

The national team which had 48 karateka selected for the provisional squad has been narrowed down to 10.

The federation has been given a chance to select 6 men and 4 women, among them Phanice Opiyo who finished fourth in 2015 All Africa Games and David Kimani being the lone karateka in the Katta category.

The team arrived in camp mid morning Monday and immediately embarked on tightening the loose ends.

Head coach John Owiti who leads both the men and women’s team is confident that the two teams are ready for the competition.

Despite being allocated few slots of Karatekas to the games, Owiti believes this will not stop them from attaining their goals.

“We had so many players in the provisional squad and it has not been easy to narrow it down to 10. In 2015 we missed medals narrowly and this year our goal is to bag medals, we want to be champions,” Owiti explained of their ambitions.

He Went on: “ We have had a lot of challenges, it’s now better that we are in camp because it was difficult for the team to come together for training because not all of them come from Nairobi so they had to use their own resources to come for training.”

The karate team jets out for Rabat, Morocco on August 19 immediately after Judo and Taekwondo competitions are wrapped up.

Full Squad

MEN

UNDER -60

Chris Machanja

UNDER -67

Fredrick Otieno

UNDER- 75

Stephen Wesonga

UNDER- 84

Eric Juma

FEMALE SQUAD

UNDER- 50

Catherine Mbithe

UNDER- 61

Georgina Kanini

UNDER- 68

Phanice Apiyo

KATTA

David Kimani

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Morocco Kasarani All Africa Games Karate team

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