Teams arrive for Martial Arts Championship

Participants to this year’s Mombasa Open International Tong-IL Moo-Do Martial Arts Championship started arriving in the country on Wednesday, three days before the start of the championship at Aga Khan Academy on Saturday.

Kenya Tong-IL Moo-Do Federation Secretary Hilary Wahanda confirmed that participants from Japan, South Korea, Ethiopia, Zambia and Cote D’Ivoire arrived on Wednesday and more are due to arrive on Thursday and Friday.

“Our guests are continuing to flow in to represent their respective countries in the sixth edition of the championship. The International Training Program (ITP) is currently underway as more guests continue to stream in,” said Wahanda.

Defending champions Kenya continued with their training under the guidance of instructor Ibrahim Muchumba Wednesday morning before joining the ITP, which is normally supervised and co-ordinated by international instructor Master Takamitsu Hoshiko.

“We are hoping to have a competitive event this weekend and are looking forward to entertain our confirmed chief guest who is the Chief of Administrative Secretary Hassan Moor Hassan
and are hoping to defend our overall crown,” he said.

He said they are expecting the Philippines team to arrive on Thursday with another batch of South Korea participants and the Thailand team to arrive on Friday.

Federation chairman Clarence Mwakio said they are still communicating with the Uganda and Tanzania teams on their intended days of arrival.

The federation is to hold a training program with Adak conducted by Agnes Mandu, who is the Director of Education and Research on Friday among other activities.

Mwakio asked Kenyans especially those in Coast Region to attend the event and support the home side.