Judokas Simon Zulu and Steven Munga’ndu arrived home from the 2023 African Games, adorned with the prestigious Gold and Bronze medals.
The two touched down Zambia yesterday, welcomed by a jubilant team, including the Acting General Secretary of the National Sports Council, Raphael Mulenga, the General Secretary of the Judo Association, Mabvuto Ngu’ni, and Pastor Makembo.
National Sports Council Acting GS expressed delight at the athletes, the coach, Punza Mathews and the entire technical team for their incredible achievements on the international stage.
“We are very pleased that you have brought victories to this great nation and have done your part,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mabvuto Ngu’ni highlighted that the achieved results are not a one day work as it goes back to the development plan the association embarked on which saw our Athlete Steven Mun’gandu and Simon Zulu being at Dunavassany high performance centers in Hungary and Paris France .Steven has been training from high performance centers since 2017 till now he has been in Europe and today as a nation we are celebrating this achievement among many others.
“The medals attained are a reflection of what we as an association in collaboration with other stakeholders such as National sports Council, International Judo Federation, Norwegian Olympic and paralympic committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF),Podium performance programme under Ministry of Youth,Sport and Arts and National Olympic Committee of Zambia just to mention but a few invested in, ” he said.
He added that the association came up with a structure developmental plan in 2015 and its fruition can be seen today.
” We are very happy, these results are for the nation as a whole, ” the GS said.
Joining the triumphant wins are fellow judokas who arrived earlier this morning: Andrew Sande took up the 7th place in – 81Kg after sustaining an injury, Elizabeth Mubila also in 7th place in – 52Kg, Taonga Soko – 63Kg, and Cheluse Phiri in – 57Kg
As we look forward to the many more triumphs at the ongoing Games in Accra, we congratulate our entire team of judokas including our Coach Mathews punza, technical team and the GS for guiding the Judokas to victory which has broken the record of these games by winning a Gold medal since ever.
Source: Judo Association of Zambia
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