BY SABELO GWEBU
SPORTS– The Eswatini Taekwondo Federation (ETF) has been named 2022’s best association.
This was during the National Sports Awards held at Happy Valley Hotel. The annual National Sports Awards are organised by the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs through the Eswatini Sports and Recreation Council (ESRC).
According to ESRC, ETF has spearheaded sport for social change which is mainly the implementation of the Refugee Humanitarian Programme bringing in a combined nine gold medals and one bronze in the past two sports seasons.
ETF also produced the best coach in Mancoba Motsa who was Team Eswatini Taekwondo Coach at the Africa Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Youth Games Lesotho 2021 where he won four gold medals and one bronze.
Motsa also led Team Eswatini in last December’s games in Malawi winning five gold medals and was named the best coach at the 2022 Next Generation Open Championships in Manzini He has produced eight national team athletes; six juniors and two seniors.
ETF President Zakhele Zulu said, “We are happy as an association but this boils down to the hard work we have been putting in. We started with these kids at a young age through to junior stage and we are forever grateful to parents for the overwhelming support,” he said.
Zulu added that the next stage and aim is to make an impact at the All-Africa Games. The 13th African Games is expected to be held in three cities in Ghana in 2024 on dates yet to be confirmed. This will be the second time in history that the games will be decentralized in a process that started in the previous edition held in Morocco. The three cities chosen for these functions are Accra, Kumasi, and Cape Coast.
Dubbed Accra 2023, the games will serve as qualifiers for 12 sporting disciplines for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The disciplines to serve as qualifiers for Paris 2024 are Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Cycling, Gymnastics, Judo, Swimming, Tennis, Table Tennis, Triton, Volleyball, and Wrestling.
Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs Harries ‘Madze’ Bulunga said the National Sports Awards were a platform for celebrating and cherishing excellence by our athletes and other sports practitioners. “These are athletes and practitioners that have defied odds, swam against tides, jumped over perceived insurmountable hurdles and fought gallantly to make the country proud,” he said.
