Botha-Bothe’s premium Taekwondo Club is currently undergoing preparations of the prestigious 3rd generation Championships to be held on the 8th of July in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
The club has selected 22 of their best players, with 17 of them being males, while 5 are females. The selected squad leaves for Eswatini in the coming week on Thursday, and within the squad are two well experienced players in the likes of Rethabile Tjotjo, who has been in the Lesotho National team and travelled to Rabat in Morocco, to participate in the Olympic qualifiers.
Another talented player is young gold medallist, Mpho Mofammere who represented Lesotho in Malawi at the AUSC Region 5 Games in December Last year.
In an interview with the Informative Newspaper, Mr Thabang Thomane, who is the Botha-Bothe Taekwondo Club Trainer & Manager, said he was thrilled about his clubs participation in the tournament and went on to laud his players for displaying commitment and discipline to the sport
Mr Thomane, said preparations for the tournament were at an advanced stage, as they had already phased out most of the physical training and were now focusing on the somatological aspect of things, which related to the easing of the body and the stretching of vital ligaments.
“Our preparations are already in their final stages, as most of the physical aspects are now complete. What is left now is the technical side of things which is related to educating our kids about the legal side of the sport, whereby we teach them on theoretical things like the right placing of the foot in order to score maximum points and so fourth,” he said.
In addition he said he was happy because this year they were able to groom players from the grass roots development and were able to give them a chance. He said most of the developed players were absorbed into the Eswatini bound squad and so he was happy that they will receive exposure on the international scene
Martial arts and Taekwondo in particular in the kingdom, took an unconventional dip in the early 2000’s when compared to the glory days in the 90’s. During that era Lesotho once retained the prestigious title of number one on the African Continent in Taekwondo. It was during the days of former late Taekwondo trainer Mr Phatuli Mahao, and the country was then undoubtedly all time a high in Taekwondo.
During those days chants of the words “Taekwondo Lesotho!” were all too popular on the streets. The country was also a prolific competitor on the International stage, with trainer Mahao’s squad team competing as far as Korea in those days.
The kingdom has however struggled to reach those levels in latter years but there are some glimpse of hope with the likes of Taekwondo starlet Michele Tau doing well on the international stage.
In conclusion, Mr Thomane said, with incidents like their participation in the tournament he was optimistic about the resurgence of the sport in the country and said he believed they would reach the heights they once were as a country.