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Khomasdal club awards karatekas

Back row (left to right): Dojo Head, Morchen Kruger, Ryan Kruger (Best Senior Karateka), John Naiteta, Darryl Eiman (Best Performance), Marliyano Tripodi, Stefan Vries, Second row (left to right), Mariana, Shaniqua Hagemann, Ernst Hangen (Best Boys Junior Karateka), Romelo Klazen, Caitlin Louw (Best Girls Junior Karateka). Front row (left to right), Samuel, Lutchiyano Tripodi (Best Kiddies Boys Karateka), Valentiono Louw, Stanfo Kruger (Best Performance), George Klazen. (Photograph Contributed)

Back row (left to right): Dojo Head, Morchen Kruger, Ryan Kruger (Best Senior Karateka), John Naiteta, Darryl Eiman (Best Performance), Marliyano Tripodi, Stefan Vries, Second row (left to right), Mariana, Shaniqua Hagemann, Ernst Hangen (Best Boys Junior Karateka), Romelo Klazen, Caitlin Louw (Best Girls Junior Karateka). Front row (left to right), Samuel, Lutchiyano Tripodi (Best Kiddies Boys Karateka), Valentiono Louw, Stanfo Kruger (Best Performance), George Klazen. (Photograph Contributed)

At a very exciting and memorable event held on 22 November, the Khomasdal Dojo awarded 15 of its Shotokan Karate students with certificates.
The club was established in July this year by Windhoek’s only female karate club owner and trainer, Morchen Kruger. The 18-year-old Kruger started showing interest in karate at the tender age of five.
She says: “I used to love kicking, and even my mum used to call me a little kicker from childhood. I would kick the lights on or off and eventually I joined karate. Today I inspire other sport lovers to take up the sport.”
Coming from a strong sporting background, Kruger says opening her own club has always been what she wanted to do as a way of giving back to her community.
This year the club took part in a number of national tournaments as well as at the International Championships where they battled against South Africa in Walvis Bay. She tells The Economist that it was tough preparing the team for such big tournaments but they managed to pull through.
“All these competitions were challenging as I had only two weeks to train the participants for the nationals and a month for the internationals which is a relatively short period seeing that we are competing with international karate personalities.”

Other than that, Kruger says it has been a good year as they excelled in the competitions they took part in and this has helped them prepare for tournaments for the next season.
Although minority sport such as karate has a lot of challenges in terms of support and funding, Kruger says the club has grown remarkably and with the right sort of support and dedication, karate can grow in popularity as well.
Sharing her passion for karate, Kruger says it is more than just a sport. “One makes family with karate and it teaches one the essence of discipline and one can use it as a means of self-protection in today’s society.”
Kruger adds that although most of her students are boys, girls are also starting to show keen interest in the sport.
Members of the public are welcome to join her karate family. Contact Morchen Kruger at 0814623097.

 

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