Mushambokazi eyes gold at World Taekwondo championship

At 20 years old, Zura Mushambokazi will be the sole female representative of Rwanda at the 2013 World Taekwondo championships in Mexico from July 15-21.This path has never been treaded by women in Rwanda in the history of this country.Mushambokazi holds the prestigious black belt, the highest achievement any player wishes to attain in their taekwondo career. She attained this in October 2012, two years after she started learning about the game. Eight months down the road and the U-49 category player (flyweight) will be flying Rwanda’s flag high in the North American country, a feat no other woman has done.“I want to get Gold in Mexico and also to gain experience since I will be playing against some of the best players in the world,” revealed a confident Mushambokazi in an exclusive interview with Times Sport.Mushambokazi will be competing in an international event for the third time after she also represented Rwanda two months ago at the German and Dutch Taekwondo open championships in March.“Zura (Mushambokazi) has greatly improved over the past ten months and her confidence has gone up which is very crucial at this point,” explained the Rwanda national team head coach Martin Koonce.Koonce further added that her speed, stamina and skill have been enhanced from the time she clinched silver in the Gorilla Open in January and a gold medal at the East Africa Taekwondo championship the following month here in Kigali.Mushambokazi will be joined by three male players including flyweight Placide Bagabo (U-58kg), featherweight Savio Nizeyimana (U-68kg) and flyweight Boniface Mbonigaba (54kg) who will represent Rwanda on it’s maiden appearance at the big stage.The team will be in residential camp for three weeks before embarking on a 34-hour flight to Puebla in Mexico where they will re-write history.

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Mushambokazi eyes gold at World Taekwondo championship