Leemisa Thuseho
MARUMO Moloisane will this week finally head back to his base in the Taekwondo Competence Centre (TCC) in Germany under the Olympic scholarships for athletes preparing the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
He returns to the camp after a month on the sidelines nursing a knee injury.
Moloisane has been in Germany since 2017 and Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) High-Performance Coordinator Likeleko Lepitla recently told the Sunday Express that the athlete is now expected to return to his base this week.
All the athletes in high-performance centres are afforded a chance to return home during the December holidays and an arrangement was made for Moloisane to instead use the holiday period to catch up on his training.
“We have a group of LNOC team experts that includes physiotherapy and a strength and conditioning coach who were taking care of Moloisane during his stay in Lesotho,” Lepitla said.
“However, we are yet to get the final report on his rehabilitation from the team.”
Moloisane picked the injury at training a few weeks after his return from the African Games in Rabat, Morocco in August this year.
“We agreed that he uses the rehabilitation days as his holiday break so that in December he will go back to his training programs.
“The decision was reached after the TCC was convinced that Lesotho can provide all the needed service for the athlete’s rehabilitation,” added Lepitla.
Meanwhile, Moloisane is looking forward to the 2020 qualifying tournament in Rabat, Morocco in February next year.
Lepitla believes that by February 2020, Moloisane would have recovered for the qualifiers.
“The qualifiers are in February next year, so we believe he still has time to prepare.”
On the other hand, Moloisane says although he feels better, he was yet to return to full fitness hence there was no guarantee he would fight.
“At first I thought the injury was just minor until I was told I had to go for surgery. It was blow to me because the qualifying games are close and I last competed in the African Games in August,” Moloisane said.
Moloisane believes that coming home for his rehabilitation was a good decision as he was lonely in Germany as other athletes would always travel for different competitions.
“Psychologically, it affected me negatively.”
Out of the multiple tournaments that he participated in since his arrival in Germany, Moloisane only bagged one bronze medal at the 2018 Austria Taekwondo Open.
