Africa-Press – Angola. The vice-governor of Huíla for the Technical and Infrastructure sector, Hélio de Almeida, highlighted in Lubango, “the commitment and sacrifice” of the three local athletes, who won medals in the African Mixed Martial Arts Championship (MMA), held this month, in Luanda.
The three athletes represented the National MMA Team, along with 36 others from various provinces of the country, in different categories, who in total won 39 medals, 18 gold, 14 silver and seven bronze.
Huíla had a gold medal won by athlete Daniela Mandanji, in the 52.2 kilograms and two silver medals won by Maria Kitoko in the 70.3 kilograms and Joveth Santana, in the 77.1 kilograms.
Speaking after paying tribute to them in the province with the delivery of a laptop computer to each athlete, this Thursday, the vice-governor for the technical sector and infrastructures, Hélio de Almeida, highlighted the “commitment and sacrifice”, highlighting It is a reason for satisfaction when sport brings home victories.
“It is an honor to congratulate and thank you for the performance that took the name of the country and the province across borders, I wish the champions much success and, from now on, new achievements must have Huíla added”, he stated.
He recalled that Huíla has supported MMA, with internships and support for competitions within the availability of the local Government, as they want to make Huíla a reference province for sport at Angola level, so all modalities are welcome.
When reacting to the honor, Daniela Mandanji said that she worked hard to get the recognition, as a result of the desired classification and her main challenge was to remain in the 52 kilogram category, maintaining a diet to get her body used to it.
Joveth Santana acknowledged that there is more local support for the sport and in his case he lacked persistence to achieve the gold medal, but he will redouble his work to be able to win in the next championship.
Another fighter, Maria Kitoko, thanked the effort made by the local government and pointed out the lack of resistance as the main obstacle to winning at her weight, but preparation continues for the world championships that will take place in November in Albania.
In turn, the president of the provincial MMA Association in Huíla, Jacob Mandanji, said that the preparation program for the world championship is already underway and at the moment we are working on resistance and later on Brazilian jiu-jitsu, followed by combat on top.
“Our athletes fight standing up and we are going to work more on ground fights, because we noticed a slight difficulty, some athletes who, when they went to the ground, were unable to counterattack their opponent, thus creating an instability in the fight and we will work more ground so that athletes bring more medals”, he reinforced.
For More News And Analysis About Angola Follow Africa-Press
