New Millennium Taekwondo Club shines

MASERU – Lesotho’s New Millennium Taekwondo Club scooped first place at the Next Generation Swazi Tigers Taekwondo Championship held last weekend in Mbabane, Eswatini.

The tournament featured talent from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and a total of 420 athletes from countries including Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa and hosts Eswatini took part.

The two-day event started last Friday and, when all was said and done, New Millennium were the stars of the show as they collected a total of 48 medals, 29 of which were gold along with 12 silver and seven bronze medals.

The club sent 57 athletes to Eswatini and also had athletes from St. Monica, Sefika and Police Training College clubs under their umbrella and the different teams all contributed to New Millennium’s medals tally.

New Millennium were not Lesotho’s only success story in Mbabane as Butha-Buthe Taekwondo Club managed to haul in 10 medals – six gold, one silver and three bronze.

‘Mabathoana, Lithabaneng and Makoanyane taekwondo clubs also competed at the tournament and New Millennium head coach Mahloane Mahloane applauded the country’s impressive display at the championship.

He said good preparation and training before leaving for the games played a big part in the success in Eswatini.

“I think it’s time and the training we gave them because I don’t work alone, I have another coach (working with me), Ramosoeu Nkuebe,” Mahloane said.

“We gave them two weeks of camp and we also gave them a week of endurance (training) before they left, I think it’s the training that helped them,” he added.
New Millennium are hoping to build on the success and a trip to Pretoria, South Africa is already in the pipeline. With that being the case, Mahloane said there is no time to rest or dwell on last weekend’s success.

“We don’t rest, we give them a week off when they come back from competitions like now, then we start again. If we relax, we will not get other medals, we will not achieve anything,” Mahloane said.

Four of the athletes that competed for New Millennium last weekend represented Lesotho in the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Youth Games in December last year.

Mahloane said their improvement is clear for all to see and much of that comes down to the chances they have had to compete internationally.

“They are improving, if you get exposure of representing your country (internationally) it’s difficult for anyone without that exposure to beat you. What we need to do is just maintain their standard and make sure they are growing,” Mahloane said.

“We want them to go far,” he added.

“Taekwondo has a lot of scholarships that can take you far, we want them to get those scholarships and have a better life.”
Lesotho had the largest representation at the Next Generation Swazi Tigers Taekwondo Championship as about 100 athletes attended the tournament which was open to everyone in different age categories.

Katleho Sechefo was named the best male cadet at the championship. Lerato Maphathe was crowned the junior male while Mookho Molise was awarded the best senior female accolade.

To cap it off, New Millennium were named the best team of the tournament and came home with a trophy for being number one.

Tlalane Phahla