Malawi’s only heavy weight professional taekwondo player Guba attains 5th medal by mid 2022 alone

Proudly with his 5th medal of the year

* He is also the only highly-graded personnel in UK Armed Forces Taekwondo team

* His most recent and notable achievement is his grading to Kukkiwon World Taekwondo 5th Dan/ Degree black belt

By Duncan Mlanjira

Malawian UK-based taekwondo expert, Sergeant Yamikani Guba — who is with the British military — has added a 5th medal for this year on his trophy trove after winning the silver last Sunday in the 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (3RHA) Premier 1st Open Championships, held at the University of Huddersfield.

Master Guba, who by this mid 2022 alone has won 3 gold medals, 1 silver and 1 bronze, says he is now looking forward to the next lineup  competitions — which are the 3rd Welsh International Championship; the Inter-services Championships and the British National Championship.

The only Malawi heavy weight professional taekwondo player, is also 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.

He says that his “ultimate ambition is to promote the sport in Malawi and continue to be a role model to the youth as well as continuing to represent Malawi in international games”.

In November last year, Guba won a silver medal during the British National Taekwondo Championships held at the Copper Box Arena Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park — making it two silvers in under two weeks.

He won the other silver on October 24 at the North East Open Championships in Newcastle City while on October 17 he clinched gold at the Ultimate Open Championships held at the Metrodome Leisure centre in Barnsley.

Guba is captain for the British Army Taekwondo team since 2010 and is also selected to represent the team at the World Masters’ Games 2022 in Tokyo.

In June last year, Guba successfully passed the World Taekwondo Kukkiwon 5th Degree/Dan Black Belt during grading that was held in Aldershot at the Combat Sports Centre which was conducted by a panel of highly graded Masters that included head coach and director of Wessex Taekwondo senior Master John Harrison.

Guba won his last title in March 2020 just before the CoVID-19 lockdown —  a silver medal attained at the Yorkshire Open Championships held in Halifax, UK.

He accumulated six medals last year alone and altogether, he has 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.

Originally from Blantyre District, he also holds a 2nd Dan in both Judo and Karate and a 1st Dan in Kendo.

He learnt his Martial Arts at Blantyre Youth Centre (BYC) at the age of 10 at the inspiration of his family members and later relocated to UK in 2004 to study the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM-postgraduate) before joining the British Army in 2007.

He joined the British Army Martial Arts team in 2008, competing in both Taekwondo and Kendo at international and national level.

In 2016, the British military awarded Guba with the title of the best senior fighter for its Taekwondo team in which he is the captain.

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.