Renowned French Karateka Christophe Pinna on Friday, September 1, started his second technical seminar in Kigali.
The three-day Kumite (fighting) technical seminar with separate editions for children and adults is conducted at Lycee de Kigali gymnasium. The seminar was organised by Japan Karate Association, or JKA-Rwanda.
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The multi-European and World Karate Champion conducted his first training workshop in Rwanda in April 2022.
During his second trip to Kigali Pinna will also oversee the inaugural Grand Prix competition which will take place just after final training session on Sunday afternoon.
Guy Rurangayire, the JKA-Rwanda president, said that having Pinna in Rwanda is a great opportunity that the Karate community cannot take for granted.
"Last year he was here and the outcome was great. Children who attended last year’s seminar later scooped nearly allmedals in the regional competitions they attended. We have a young girl (17-year-old Lucie Yezakuzwe) who won a bronze medal at the just concluded African championships. So, all these positive factors led to Pinna’s return,” Rurangayire said.
Yezakuzwe was the only athlete in the nine-member national team at the annual African Karate championships that won a medal in Casablanca, Morocco.
"These young boys and girls are lucky to be trained by a world great like Pinna who has won so many titles in his professional career. We hope that the experience he’s going to share with us throughout the three days will help our Karatekas, especially the young ones, in their careers,” he added.
National team head coach Noël Nkuranyabahizi who is attending the seminar said that it is "an honor to have an instructor like Pinna coming to Rwanda twice in less than two years.”
"In our early days we used to learn from him by watching his videos. Now we’re having this great opportunity to learn directly from him,” Nkuranyabahizi said.
"Having a big figure like Pinna train us will help improve our teaching methodology, gain new techniques and tactics. We hope these three days will be remarkable. Through seminars like these, Rwandan Karate is growing. For the first time in our history we finished fifth in the 2023 African championships. That is a good sign and we believe that Karate will be among the top sporting disciplines in Rwanda.”