Yamikani Guba attains his 14th medal of 2023 as he wins bronze at British Taekwondo National Championships
Yamikani Guba, Malawi’s only heavyweight professional taekwondo athlete based in the UK, has added 13 medals on his treasure trove from this year alone after winning the Vets Bronze (+80 kg) at British Taekwondo National Championships at the English Institute of Sports on Sunday.
Guba, a Sergeant in the British military under the 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, was also team captain for the UK Armed Forces Taekwondo (all Army players) at the full contact taekwondo championships.
“All UKAF fighters competed with indomitable spirit and have benefitted from the step up in class,” he said. “The Secretary of the Army Martial Arts Association, Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) D. Campey (MBE) was present to support the UK Armed Forces Taekwondo team at the Championships.”
He won 2-1 in the quarterfinal against Haswell Paul of Manx Taekwondo (Isle of Man) and lost in semifinal 2-1 against Rast Boud Mehdi of Quest Taekwondo in what he described as “a very close fight”.
Last month he won the gold medal in the ‘Vets +87’ category and a silver in the Seniors exhibition match during the Scorpion Open Championships and he now has 5 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze.
The gold medal was attained while the silver was at the Scottish Open Championships on Sunday held at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility — representing the Army Taekwondo WT team.
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 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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