‘Never Again’ tourney set

TWELVE teams, including one from Canada, will grace this year’s ‘Never Again’ karate tournament slated for April 22 at Amahoro indoor stadium.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The old guards look on in awe as some of Rwandau2019s future Karate champions sweat it out in a past Kumite (sparring) session. The New Times/File.

TWELVE teams, including one from Canada, will grace this year’s ‘Never Again’ karate tournament slated for April 22 at Amahoro indoor stadium.Guy Rurangayire, the national karate federation Technical Director told Times Sport, yesterday that apart from taking part in the annual tournament which seeks to honor victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, they will also visit the memorial sites of Kigali and Murambi. "The tournament will be bigger than the one of last year. We have a guest team from Canada that will spice up the tournament which is divided in to two categories – Kumite and Kata,” Rurangayire said.Kumite, one of the three main sections of karate training, is the part of karate in which Karatekas train against an adversary, using the techniques learned from the other sections of karate training, kihon and kata.The teams that will take part in the one day event are: Samurai, Kaisho, APR, Kensei, Aigle, Hantei, Lion, Mamaru, Nyamagabe, Fayt, Kamikaze and Toronto based High Park Martial team.Some of the most prominent players, who lost their lives during the Genocide, include Jean Marie Vianney Kalisa, Emmanuel Kamali, Theodore Kamayire, Jean Pierre Kabarira and Innocent Gahamanyi.