Fourways technical official receives an award
FOURWAYS – The Gauteng Women in Sport Awards took place towards the end of March, with a Fourways-based martial arts technical official acknowledged at a provincial level.
A technical official based in Fourways received a prestigious award at the Gauteng Women in Sports Awards ceremony recently.
Roberta Biagioni, who also won the same award in the Johannesburg Women in Sport Awards last year, has been a technical official for the last 10 years. She has officiated at a district, provincial and national level.
This year all the finalists from all the districts were nominated from non-profit organisation Futballing Girls as well as the Gauteng Sports Confederation in partnership with the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation.
Biagioni boasts a number of qualifications in the sport of martial arts. She is a senior instructor at Fourways Martial Arts Academy, a qualified senior Karate South Africa referee and judge, she judges in kata and kumite for the Union of African Karate Federations (UFAK) and African Union Sports Council and is the chief referee of the Johannesburg Karate District.
Biagioni said she felt a wealth of emotions when she was announced technical official of the year. “I was overwhelmed and overcome with a flood of emotions- elated, overjoyed, joyous, proud, gratitude, thankfulness and a slight disbelief as there were some powerful worthy other women in the same category who were winners in my opinion as well,” she said.
She said there has been great growth for women’s sport, especially for karate sporting codes.
“The future is brighter for all the girls that will come into the karate sporting code. Winning the award was a win for women in general, however, for karate, it gives hope that you can achieve anything you set your goals for through determination and hard work.”
Biagioni hopes to be an inspiration for future youth in karate at a grassroots level through her workshops and courses for judging and refereeing. She concluded, “The goal is to get more educated in the referee field through bettering my qualification on the African continent.”
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