Malawi misfiring at Africa Union Games

Malawi’s athletes are underperforming at the African Union Sport Council Region 5 Youth Games in Angola where they are on position nine out of 10 countries that are competing at the event.

According to Malawi’s leader of delegation Joseph Mazaza, Malawi has won seven medals while South Africa which is leading the table has raked in 27 medals.

The only country Malawi is beating is Swaziland which has not won any medal.

Athletes Prisca Kachule competing in 800m for the visually impaired and Cecilia Mhango who run in 800m won silver. Five bronze medals went to Ester Mollen, Martin Kuphiri, Chikondi Kathewera and Brenda William who competed in Judo and athlete Ellen Nyoka who raced in 3000m.

“As of 17:00 hours on 12 December Malawi won seven medals. We have no medal in tennis and boxing. Malawi delegation has six Judo athletes, 20 normal athletes, four visually impaired athletes, four boxing athletes and four tennis athletes,” Mazaza, who is also chief sports officer in the Ministry of Labour, Sports and Manpower Development, said.

Out of 10 sports disciplines, Malawi is competing in four: judo, athletics for both normal and visually impaired athletics, lawn tennis and boxing.

Though the few medals could be attributed to the low number of athletes fielded, Mazaza said poor preparations were key challenges.

“My personal observation is that there was no adequate preparation of our athletes due to inadequate resources, inadequate period of training and inexperienced coaching personnel,” he said.

Sports analyst Steve Mawenzi Msiska said it was high time Malawi paid much attention to the games which are good for the development of athletes.

“If we want to do well at Olympic Games we need to invest in preparations for such games. It is a platform where young athletes are exposed to the big stage,” Mawenzi, who is also a boxing, expert, said.