The phenomenon athlete
* I am very privileged to be selected for another year of the Army Elite Sport and Talented Athlete Scholarship programme
* My sporting career has been massively helped by being in the British Army — I wouldn’t have been able to manage by myself
* The Army provides me so much – financial assistance, time, training facilities and it has had a big impact on my achievements
By Duncan Mlanjira
Malawi’s UK-based taekwondo Master, Yamikani Guba has once against earned a place in British Army’s elite sports programme, the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) for the 6th consecutive year.
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The 41-year-old, who is a Sergeant in the 4th Regiment Royal Artillery and also captains the British Army Taekwondo team since 2010, was first enrolled in the programme in 2019
He will be studying this programme at Northumbria University in Newcastle where all athletes on TASS have access to personal strength and conditioning (S&C), physiotherapy, diet-nutrition, life style and sports psychology coaching.
And in additional to that is the normal specific sport discipline — technical training in taekwondo and Guba, who has over 250 medals to his name says the programme has led him to more success in the sport proven by all the medals and recognition/awards within the UK and the UK Armed Forces — even abroad which includes his home country, Malawi.
Medals aplenty
On June 29 and 30, he won the gold medal in the +87kg Senior category at the Interservices Championships 2024 and the following day he won a silver at the 4th Wales International Taekwondo Championships held at the Wales National Stadium.
The gold medal is his 5th this year alone — the 4th won in the +87 kg Senior category at the Premier Open Championships 2024 on June 23, held at the University of Huddersfield.
The other three were won at the Army Open Championship in February in WT Poomsae Masters category; alongside +87kgs kyorugi (fighting) at the championships held at the Army Combat Centre in Aldershot and at the Ultimate Open Championship 2024 in Vets +87kgs held at the Metrodome Lesuire Centre, Sheffield in March.
Representing the 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, Guba was also awarded the UK Armed Forces Martial Arts (UKAF MAA) Colours by the president of UKAF MAA.
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“I am very privileged to be selected for another year of the Army Elite Sport and Talented Athlete Scholarship programme,” said Guba, who won 15 medals of 6 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze last year that earned him the Malawi Sports Awards Sportsman of the Year 2023 and the same achievements were recognized by UK (North) Army Sport Trophy Awards, that nominated him for the Most Outstanding Male Sports Person and he came second.
According to the Army Elite Sport Programme (AESP) the TASS initiative receives support and funding from Sport England with the mission; A world leading partnership between education and sport to help talented athletes in England fulfil their potential and balance their sporting development with their education and training.’
TASS supports athletes who are currently unfunded by UK Sport and who sit somewhere close to the standard required for entry into podium/world class development programmes.
The AESP adds that the British Army has established a strong relationship with TASS and selects and funds talented Army athletes for placements regionally at universities, or at the Army Elite Athlete Performance Centre (AEAPC) in Aldershot.
Held annually, AESP says the principal aim of the TASS selection board is to provide a robust and transparent process for the selection of TASS placements for Army athletes and in total, 52 personnel were selected for TASS placements starting in September 24.
“My sporting career has been massively helped by being in the British Army,” Guba said. “I wouldn’t have been able to manage by myself. The Army provides me so much – financial assistance, time, training facilities and it has had a big impact on my achievements.”
“You have to reapply to the scheme every year and it’s not just about participating in different events – you have to prove you have been winning them.
“The national governing body scrutinise all the applications, looking at what has been achieved across all applicants from the entire UK Armed Forces (UKAF). It’s a long process.”
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He emphasised that “it’s worth it for the access to professional support and world-class amenities at Northumbria University, where he can use not only most of the sports facilities on campus, but also benefit from strength and conditioning training, physiotherapy, and coaches in nutrition, lifestyle and sports psychology.
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 two years ago.
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