Malawi snatches Kendo crown from Japan

Malawi Kendo team on Saturday defeated Japan to win Japanese Ambassadors’ Kendo Championship.

Typical of the biblical David versus Goliath affair, the five-man Malawi team comprising Kendo Association of Malawi president Austin Somba, Wyson Somba, Friday Kalonga, Wilfred Keyala and Chimwemwe Hara refused to be undermined by the imposing stature of their opponents to put up a gallant fight and earn a 2-1 victory.

During the encounters of the third-edition contest at College of Medicine (CoM) Sports Complex, Malawi got the success through Kalonga and Hara who beat Kohei Shiota and Naomi Moriguchi, respectively.

Japan got their consolation through Sakata Atsushi’s triumph over the KAM president Somba. The other two fights (Keyala versus Jumpei Himura and Wyson Somba versus Hiromi Nomizu) ended in draws.

“We are happy to have finally beaten the originators of the sport. This shows that Kendo is improving in the country,” Kalonga said.

In individual advanced players and Under-20 categories, Japanese athletes Himura and Shiota triumphed in that order. Malawian junior athlete 11-year-old Razak Mussa took glory in the Under-12 category.

Japanese Ambassador Shuichiro Nishioka said they are delighted to note that the fencing-like sport is fast improving Malawi.

“Kendo championship is one of our programmes aimed at encouraging sports values and promoting the Olympic movement towards the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo Japan,” said Nishioka, whose government has recently introduced in primary school a sport Undokai.

Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) executive secretary George Jana thanked Japan for contributing to sports diversification in the country. n