Kenya's 'Jasiri' pitch camp in Mombasa, ready to defend Tong -II-Moo-Do title

 Over 50 players are set to represent Kenya’s national team ‘Jasiri’ at  the eleventh edition of the Mombasa Open Tong -Il-Moo-Do international Martial Arts Championship which is set to run from December 15-17 in the coastal city .

The team is currently training at Light International School, Nyali in Mombasa County for the highly anticipated tournament where more than 40 countries have confirmed participation.

Speaking after visiting the team’s camp at Light International, Kenya Tong -IL-Moo-Do chairman Clearance Mwakio confirmed that they are in final stages of preparations after the Ministry of Youths, Sports and Gender committed to financial support.

"The federation requested the government to sponsor the event with Ksh 230 million for hosting, and Ksh45 million for the national team but after deliberations we were advised to scale down and now we are looking for over Ksh100 million from the ministry for hosting and for ‘Jasiri’ and the deficit we have been able to get assistance from our partners here and there," he explained.

Mombasa County is expected to capitalise on the event to boost the tourism sector.

Master Clarence saying the county is a top tourist destination and they expect more visitors during the tournament.

"Mombasa Open mostly brings about sports tourism and this year we expect more tourists from over 40 countries that will participate in this year's tournament, we have beautiful sceneries where our visitors will be interested to visit like Tsavo, Shimba hills and our sand beaches,” he explained.

The national team, Jasiri, under Captain Elvis Malipe, will be out to defend their title, Malipe saying players are motivated to tackle their opponents despite this year's tournament attracting many teams.

"We are fully prepared for the tournament and it's good that there will be stiff competition and we like it that way because it will be a sweet win. Our national players are still streaming into the camp and everyone is psyched and we are harmonising to have a one strong team."

Jasiri will have a tough time in the hands of teams from Philippine, Iran, Ivorycoast, Nigeria, DRC and Zambia, allof whom finished in position three last year.

The foreign teams will start arriving in Mombasa from December 9, in preparation for the Tong-Il-Moo-Do  seminar which is slated to start the same day before the action kick off at Aga Khan Academy from December 15-17.