North Education Division (NED) and Central West Education (Cwed) were on Sunday crowned 2016 Airtel Rising Stars champions in the boys and girls categories, respectively, at Mzuzu Stadium.
They each got K2 million, gold medals and a trophy while the runners-up received K1.5 million each.
The two teams saw off a spirited challenge from six other teams that qualified for the three-day national finals.
NED Under-17 boys football team beat Cwed 4-2 in semi-finals before registering a 3-1 victory over South West Education Division (Swed) in the finals.
Happy Phiri and Samson Chiona were on target for NE goal from Daniel Matchipitsa. Swedscored their consolation goal through Michael Phiri.
“We had good preparationslts and the boys played according to instrunctions,” said NED coach Epumack Lwanja.
In girls’ category, NED failed to utilise home ground advantage to lose 1-0 to Cwed during the finals. Caroline Mathyola scored the lone goal of the match.
Cwed’s coach Leonard Dzanja attributed the win to good preparations.
Central East Education Division ( Ceed) finished third in both girls and boys’ categories and got K1.2 million in each category.
Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Technology Vincent Ghambi, who was the guest of honour, thanked Airtel for partnering government in the development of youth football.
“Airtel is doing commendable work in promoting youth football. However, we still need your support in other sports disciplines such as netball,” he said.
Airtel marketing director Emmanuel Kasambala pledged continued support towards the tournament.
“Congratulations to all teams that took part in this year’s competition. We look forward to more opportunities for you next year when we return with our seventh edition of Airtel Rising Stars,” he said.
