Madibaz karateka Adre Weideman enhanced her standing in the sport when she returned from a recent national tournament in Stellenbosch with four gold medals.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old Nelson Mandela University student, from Korsten in Port Elizabeth, competed in the Goju Kai tournament last month and ruled the kata and kumite categories.<\/p>\n
Representing Eastern Province, she also picked up two team golds in the same disciplines.<\/p>\n
Even though she lacked some confidence going into the tournament, Weideman said her success made her realise “I can do anything I put my mind to”.<\/p>\n
“I was recovering from an injury and juggling a hectic academic schedule, which often caused my training to take a back seat,” said the third-year human movement science student.<\/p>\n
“Apart from all the insecurities about whether I had trained enough and if I had fully recovered, these medals have provided the motivation for me to keep pushing and to believe in myself.”<\/p>\n
She added that a number of factors contributed to her success.<\/p>\n
“Thanks to the constant motivation from my coaches Shihan Clayton Thom and sensei Warda Mallick, as well as from my family, I had no choice but to apply my mind to do the best I can.”<\/p>\n
“I was also honoured to be chosen as a provincial coach for the team. Being put in this position of trust meant I wanted to prove I was the right person for the job and that motivated me even more.”<\/p>\n
The third factor had a personal ring to it because Weideman competed alongside her sister, Luchay, a Grade 10 pupil at St James High.<\/p>\n
“She is a world medallist [in her age-group] and just competing with her made me bring my best to the table,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I wanted to give my all the same way she gives her all – to match her fearless attitude in competition definitely gave me the edge I needed.”<\/p>\n
She felt great satisfaction with her efforts after winning only one gold medal in the same tournament a year ago.<\/p>\n
“I was quite disappointed in my performance then,” said Weideman. “However, this year I couldn’t be prouder due to the fact that I put in the effort and made sure I gave it my all, regardless of the outcome.”<\/p>\n
Her results cap a year that she said had been a roller-coaster, juggling a karate career with study commitments.<\/p>\n
“However, to know that I have made my parents, senseis, friends and family proud makes it all worth it.<\/p>\n
“The support I have received from them cannot be measured. It’s great to know that I have such a big support system, who have my back and are there celebrating my performances with me.”<\/p>\n
Madibaz Karate manager Bernard Petersen said they were proud of Weideman’s efforts as she helped to strengthen the university brand.<\/p>\n
“Karate is alive and well in both styles, semi and full contact,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Adre missed the opportunity this year to go to Japan with the USSA [University Sport South Africa] team due to a lack of funding and her results in Stellenbosch are an indication of what a strong competitor she is.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Madibaz karateka Adre Weideman enhanced her standing in the sport when she returned from a recent national tournament in Stellenbosch with four gold medals. The 20-year-old Nelson Mandela University student, from Korsten in Port Elizabeth, competed in the Goju Kai tournament last month and ruled the kata and kumite categories. Representing Eastern Province, she also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2739,3774,3773,2711,2709,2800],"class_list":["post-23829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-more-sport","tag-adre-weideman","tag-goju-kai","tag-goju-kai-tournament","tag-karate","tag-madibaz-karate","tag-nelson-mandela-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}