No tourists for C’Wealth games
Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC) has warned that it will not tolerate ‘journeymen’ in Team Malawi at the forthcoming Birmingham Commonwealth Games in England from July 28 to August 8 2022.
Thirty-two athletes from netball, athletics, judo, swimming and boxing have camped in Lilongwe in preparation for the games and chef de mission Henry Sakala said only the best of the best will make the grade.
Though just four months before the games, Sakala is confident that 10 athletes that will make the grade for Team Malawi to leave a mark at the games.
He said: “We don’t want to send journeymen to Birmingham. We want to send a team that can compete and not just participate.”
Judoekas and boxers are training at Kamuzu Institute for Sports while athletics team is training at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
Sakala said MOC trusts that the five sporting codes’ respective associations have been preparing their athletes for the games.
He said: “This camp is an initiative of MOC, but the five sporting codes’ respective associations have also been preparing for the games.
“What we have done is to request the five sporting codes’ associations to give us their best athletes for the camp.”
Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) acting general secretary Mzee Makawa said they will continue monitoring their athletes ahead of the games.
He said: “We selected 10 athletes for the Commonwealth Games camp. They are being assisted by some three athletes during training.”
“But this is not a final list. We will continue monitoring their performance. In between now and July we have some national and international competitions which the athletes will participate in.
“For example, we have the Blantyre Marathon which we will also use to assess the long distance athletes’ performance.
“You will also recall that last year our two athletes Asimenye Simwaka and Sten Lifa [who are also in camp] qualified for the Algeria Africa Championship which did not take place due to Covid-19.
“That competition will now be held in Mauritius in June and we will also use it to assess the athletes’ performance ahead of the Commonwealth Games.”
Simwaka also competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in track and field events, breaking the national record in the preliminary heats of women’s 100 metres.
Though she became the national record holder in the 100, 200 and 400 metres at the same time and improved on her national record, running 11.68, she did not qualify for the semi-finals.
Simwaka said she is working hard to improve her time ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, will see 5 054 athletes from 72 Commonwealth nations participating in 283 events from 20 sports codes under the theme Games for All in Birmingham.
