Former weightlifting champion switches to bodybuilding

Former two-time national weightlifting champion Thoko Kakhongwe has switched to bodybuilding and is geared to take part in this year’s Bodybuilding Championships in October.

Kakhongwe, who was the national weightlifting champion in 2010 and 2011, said he is training hard at his base in Zomba to ensure he attains a good shape to wrestle the crown from Henry Master.

“Bodybuilding has been my favourite game since my childhood days, only that I did not have a good shape for the sport. But those contesting should expect a stiff competition from me,” he said.

The 27-year-old athlete said he has also been fired up to join bodybuilding by his second-place finish on his first appearance in the recent Mr. Zomba Bodybuilding Championships and the appetising prizes on offer.

“The K60 000 (US$143) I received for becoming runner-up during the Mr. Zomba Bodybuilding Tournament is yards away from what I get for becoming a national weightlifting champion,” he said.

Kakhongwe, who represented the country in weightlifting at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, added that it is his growing passion for bodybuilding that forced him out of the Presidential Weightlifting Championships in Blantyre last month.