By GRACE CHAILE –

ZAMBIAN judokas are upbeat of winning medals at the 2014 Africa Senior Judo Championship slated for November 21-25 in Mauritius.
Leading the Zambian crusade will be Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Boas Munyonga, who will compete in the 81kg, Mathews Punza (66kg) and Abigail Chindele in (48kg).
Munyonga said in an interview that the team has been training hard and was ready to win medals for the country.
He said the experience gained at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and World Judo Championships in Russia by the three judokas will greatly help them win medals adding that he was expecting a highly competitive event.
“The team is ready for the tournament and focused on winning medals. We have earned enough experience after taking part in the Commonwealth Games and also the World Judo Championship. We shall not be intimidated in our quest to win medals,” he said.
Zambia Judo Association (ZJA) technical director Francis Linosi said the judokas broke camp in view of the national mourning declared for President Michael Sata and just train in the mornings.
Linosi said the suspending of camp will not affect the judokas preparations because they were just refining on a few tactics and will resume camp after the mourning period ends.
“We decided to break camp to observe the mourning period. This will not affect the judokas levels of readiness because they began training in September. They will have enough time to finalise their training once the mourning period is over,” he said.
Meanwhile, Linosi said the 27 judokas that were not picked for the Africa Senior Championships will soon begin preparations for the 2015 All Africa Games to be staged in Congo Brazzaville.