Setback for athletes
Malawi has withdrawn from the Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) Southern Africa Cross-Country Championship due to financial constraints, according to the Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM).
The tournament will be staged in Mauritius on February 27.
Briefing journalists on the sidelines of the National Cross-Country Championship on Saturday in Mzuzu, AAM president Godfrey Phiri said they needed K5 million for the event.
He said out of the K39 million budget they presented to government through Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS), they were allocated K1.7 million only in the 2017/18 National Budget.
“It is important for us to take part in the Southern Africa Cross-Country Championship because this is the right platform to determine our level of preparedness ahead of bigger tournaments like the Africa Cross-Country Championship to be held in Algeria on March 13.
“Unfortunately, we will not take part in this year’s event because we mostly rely on government for financial support and our allocation was not sufficient to meet all our programmes,” he said.
The solace though, is that government has committed to fund Malawi’s participation in the African Cross-Country Championship.
Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development Principal Secretary Joseph Mwandidya said they had opted to prioritise funding international tournaments.
“We prioritised on the bigger competition in Algeria. The President [Peter Mutharika] has assured me of his total support towards the Algeria event. We have since requested the association to provide us with all the details on what they need for the trip,” he said.
According to AAM, they need K15 million to send at least 10 athletes to Algeria.
AAM general secretary Frank Chitembeya said they will not pay any penalties for the withdrawal because they did not confirm participation.
In the previous CAA Southern Region Cross Country Championship that took place in Harare, Zimbabwe, team Malawi’s Mercy Malembo won gold in 5 000 metres whileKefasi Kasteni and Cecilia Mhango won silver in 1 500m men and women categories, respectively.
Malembo said she is disappointed that she will not defend the gold she won last year.
“It is a setback, I would have loved to defend my gold medal, but unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it,” she said.
On his part, Kasteni could not hide his disappointment, saying they spent a lot on preparing for the regional tournament. n
