Malawi’s taekwondo Master Yamikani Guba attains his 5th gold medal of 2023 and his 6th silver
Yamikani Guba, Malawi’s only heavyweight professional taekwondo athlete based in the UK, continues to shine at top level as he has won a gold medal and a silver during the Scorpion Open Championships over the weekend.
He has adding 13 medals on his treasure trove from this year alone, which are 5 gold, 6 silver and 2 bronze.
The gold medal was attained in the ‘Vets +87’ category while the silver was in the Seniors exhibition match at the Scottish Open Championships on Sunday held at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility — representing the Army Taekwondo WT team.
Guba says the trophy hunt is not over as he is now looking forward to the British Taekwondo National Championships representing the UK Armed Forces Taekwondo (WT) at the English Institute of Sports, Shelfied at the end of this September.
His previous medal was bronze medal in seniors +80kg category at the Scorpion Open Championships on July 30 while the previous month on June, he first attained first silver on Day 1 at Tampere Exhibition Center competing in World Taekwondo Individual Poomsae U45AClass in which he lost in the final against Master Meysam Habibiher from Team Iran.
On Day 2, he won silver medal in +87kg category fighting Kyorugi against a German in the final while another silver and bronze medals were attained in same month of June at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Digby, Lincoln in England, where he was also presented with the UK Armed Forces colours by chairman of the Army Martial Arts Association at RAF Cranwell.
This is in recognition of the Malawian’s achievements over the past few years representing the Army Taekwondo WT Team with 10 medals in 2022 alone — 5 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze.
The first gold medal of 2023 was attained at the Ultimate Taekwondo Championships in January; followed by a further 2 gold medals and a silver at the Army Open Championships held at the Army Combat Centre in Aldershort and the 4th gold at Midlands Open Taekwondo Championships held at Sports and Wellness Hub, Coventry University.
Guba — a Sergeant in the British military — also won a scholarship to undergo his 5th full-time training programme at Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK under the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS).
The 40-year-old, who holds a 2nd Dan in both Judo and Karate and a 1st Dan in Kendo, has been attending this auspicious programme
for 4 consecutive years since 2019 and before then he was on BAE system scholarship for 3 years.
The TASS benefits include access to personal strength and conditioning (S&C), physiotherapy, dietitian, lifestyle and sports psychology coaching in additional to the normal specific taekwondo’s technical training alongside selected England Sport athletes.
The phenomenon athlete learnt his Martial Arts at Blantyre Youth Centre (BYC) at the age of 10 at the inspiration of his family members and he later relocated to UK in 2004 to study the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM-postgraduate).
He went on to join the British Army in 2007 where he was recruited in the British Army Martial Arts team in 2008 — competing in both Taekwondo and Kendo at international and national level.
He is the only highly-graded personnel in UK Armed Forces Taekwondo team and his most recent and notable achievement is his grading to Kukkiwon World Taekwondo 5th Dan/ Degree black belt attained last year.
He is captain for the British Army Taekwondo team since 2010 and he now over 250 accolades on his trophy trove that include medals, awards, trophies and recognitions in martial arts in general both at international and British national competitions.
Guba was nominated for the 2019 Malawi Sport Awards’ Sportsman of the Year alongside men’s footballer Gabadinho Mhango and women footballer Tabitha Chawinga.
He arrived in the country to attend the Red Carpet gala but the award went to Tabitha, who was also voted as Best Overall Sports Personality for her excellent performance at her club in China which made her be nominated for Confederation of African Football (CAF) Player of the Year award.
Based in Larkhill at the Royal School of Artillery as a Phase 2 Instructor as a Sergeant, Guba has also been previously honoured by the British military when he was named the third best British Military Sportsperson of the Year achiever.
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