Malawi joins world in lobbying for IOC squash inclusion

Malawi has joined the rest of the world in lobbying the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for inclusion at the 2020 Olympic Games.

The event was marked by two tournaments organised in Lilongwe and Blantyre on Sunday.

Squash Malawi president Jimmy Kayange said the IOC rejected a request from Squash Federation International (SFI) last year to include the sport at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil on grounds that it was a sport only for the elite. The other reason was that not many countries have the required facilities.

“But squash is for everyone as you have seen today. The lowly, the rich, the young and everyone else play squash. Every country in the world, where squash is played, will be sending pictures of today’s events to IOC to convince them,” said Kayange.

At both functions, two teams, Team Squash and Team 2020 competed. In Lilongwe, Team 2020 won 3-2 whereas in Blantyre, Team Squash won 16-15.

“It feels special to be given this opportunity as a country to directly fight to influence IOC to consider squash as an Olympic sport. In Malawi, we are already recognised by the Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC) and also the Malawi National Council of Sports,” said national squash coach Don Gondwe.

He said the future of squash looks good although there is evident lack of courts across the country.

“I have toured the country during training programmes targeting the youth and my observation has been on training facilities,” said Gondwe.