Zack Piontek well prepared for African Championships

Zack Piontek is coming to Libreville, Gabon for the African judo championship, his mind set to fight till the very end in the hunt for points in the ranking. The South African judoka tells us about his build up to the championship and the South African team.

Coming in to the African championships, who would you say are your main rival?

My main rivals will be Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.

I have competed against all 3 of these countries before.

What preparations have you done?

I prepared by going to the Tunis open in January and taking bronze and then training in February and a part of March in Japan at Tokai judo club and finally competing at the Morocco open in March.

Off course also lots and lots of training on and of the mat…

Have they gone as planned?

Most of my plans did go very well.

Morocco was a good and bad experience. I was technically in good shape, but my body was not.

I did beat my first opponent and he was a Russian. And you know that is no easy task.

However I lost both my fights after that because I simple was fatigued.

My preparation this last few weeks was to rectify that mistake.

What does this championships mean to you?

This Africa means a lot to me. I competed at 2 senior Africas before and ones came 5th and once 7th.

I would be very happy just taking any medal, but every player step on the mat with one thing in their mind and that is to win, I can assure you that I am no different.

And points wise, it is crucial for the world ranking to move upwards, Africa is the most realistic points I can get.

What can we expect of the South African squad?

From the SA squad. We are sending a young team. So I am not sure what can be expected.

From me you can expect a fighter ready to fight till the very end…

If you got to be someone else in the squad, who would it be and why?

If I could be some else in the squad it would be – 73kg Jacques van Zyl.

Simple because he is 3 time Africa champ. And everyone respects the Champ.

And in a fight respect can be a weakness, because it messes with your mind.

You think already you can not beat him.

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