Malawian Taekwondo athlete Guba wins gold at Scotland Open Championships

Malawian Taekwondo athlete, Yamikani Guba, who is with the  British military, has won his first Gold medal during the 2020 at the Scotland (Lanarkshire) Open Taekwondo Championships, held on Sunday, February 2 at the Wishaw Sports Centre.

Sergeant Guba was representing the British Army Taekwondo team in the heavyweight category +87kgs.

According to reports, Guba had great start of the year after winning all of his fights of the day and in the finals he won 22-11 to Keith Bennet from Cumbria Taekwondo club.

“The referee had to stop the fight in the second round due to heavy head shots landings to his opponent as they deemed unsafe to Keith,” says the report.

“Guba had won all his fights throughout the day, which also influenced Smyth Colin from Central Taekwondo Club to withdraw from fighting with the aggressive and ruthless 4th Dan Black belt Army Taekwondo team captain.”

Guba is now looking forward for the Army Open Taekwondo Championships which will be held in March in London.

In November last year, Guba won the silver medal at the National Taekwondo Club Championship on Sunday in Nottingham just after 11 days of achieving the same feat at the London International Open.

“I feel so good to finally win the gold medal,” Guba said. “My future plans is to keep training, improving and to win more medals on the circuit.”

In an earlier interview with Nyasa Times, Guba had said he is hoping to one day further promote the sport in Malawi as he eyes to represent Malawi at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifications games to be held in Rabat, Morocco this February.

Guba represented Malawi Taekwondo team in recent World Taekwondo Championship held in Manchester on May 19 last year and also in the 2016 Rio Olympics qualifications which was held in Agadir, Morocco.

Originally from Blantyre district, he also holds a 2nd Dan in both Judo and Karate and a 1st Dan in Kendo.

He learnt his Martial Arts at Blantyre Youth Centre (BYC) at the age of 10 at the inspiration of his family members and relocated to UK in 2004 to study the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM-postgraduate) and thereafter he decided to join the British Army in 2007.

He joined the British Army Martial Arts team in 2008, competing in both Taekwondo and Kendo at international and national level.

In 2016, the British military awarded Guba with the title of the best senior fighter for its Taekwondo team in which he is the captain.

He has achieved many medals over the years on both national and international level of fighting.

This is not the first time for Guba to be honoured by the British military in the past as he was named the third best British Military Sportsperson of the Year achiever.

Guba once was national taekwondo coach and one of the founders of Taekwondo Association Malawi at a young age.

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